Merit Pay For Teachers Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Merit Pay For Teachers - Research Paper Example (3) Pay for performance, or merit pay, for teachers can solve both problems. â€Å"Money plays a major role in educating America’s students,† state Kaplan and Owings in American Education: Building for a Common Foundation. â€Å" For the 2008-2009 school year, nation-wide public education at all levels cost one trillion dollars...When it comes to quality education, we as a society can pay now or we can pay later...It is a critical investment in a community’s—and our nation’s—infrastructure.† (Kaplan 2010) Assuming that we want to take the wiser course and pay now, thus avoiding future economic catastrophes, one of the things we need to do is to increase teachers’ salaries while also encouraging them to be more effective in the classroom. Texas Six years ago student scores at Audelia Creek Elementary School in Richardson, Texas, were among the worst in the district. More than a third of the teachers left. Now, thanks to TAP, the Teacher Advancement Program, Audelia’s students have some of the highest scores and teachers seek to work at Audelia. TAP is a national teacher evaluation and training program that includes annual cash bonuses for high-performing teachers. Teachers of each grade level meet regularly and are led by a master teacher who trains and evaluates them. One meeting, for example, focused entirely on how to teach students to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. â€Å"It’s not the sandwich, it’s the process,† the principal explained. For a teacher to know whether a student understands a reading assignment, she needs to ask the student to re-tell the material. But that's not a process that comes naturally to many kids. So the teacher has to "pre-tell," modeling the steps that students would take to organize their thoughts in order to re-tell material they've heard. For the Richardson district, teachers who hit the minimum TAP targets get an extra $2,000. But the b onus could be as much as $3,500. Over the past two years, most of Richardson's TAP teachers got around $2,800. "It's the best teaching model I have ever seen," one teacher said. "But it's not for the faint-hearted." In 2010 Audelia was awarded the annual $50,000 TAP Founder's Award by the California-based National Institute for Excellence in Teaching. The State of Texas gave its blessing to districts to find their own ways to strive for excellence. District Awards for Teacher Excellence (DATE) programs were first implemented in Texas districts during the 2008-09 school year. The program is currently in its third year of operation with approximately $197 million in annual state funding. All districts in the state are eligible to receive grants, but participation is voluntary. The National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University found that student achievement has improved and teacher turnover has declined in schools participating in the Texas state-funded DATE progra ms. Colorado Denver’s move forward in 2005 has been called both â€Å"the nation’s most ambitious teacher pay plan† and â€Å"making pure dumb luck work.† In 1990 the Board of Education first negotiated into labor agreements the formation of committees to study merit pay. There was not much enthusiasm. On November 1, 2005, Denver voters approved a $25 million property tax increase tied to ProComp, a program of merit pay for teachers. ProCamp has four components: student growth, market

Review of downsizing and its impact on employees

Review of downsizing and its impact on employees This chapter provides a review of downsizing and its impacts on employees. The main objective of this chapter is to provide readers with a picture of the theories applied in such studies. Furthermore, empirical studies specifically associated with the downsizing context and theories applied in this study will be examined too. Finally, the aim of this literature review is to find the research gaps in previous studies and how this study will close these gaps. There are eight main sections depicted in this chapter. First, a general review pertaining to downsizing will be discussed. This section mainly deals with the issues of organizational downsizing strategies, the expected and actual economic impacts of downsizing and the empirical studies which have explored the impacts of organizational downsizing on surviving employees (managers and non-managers). The second section deals with one of the main theories applied in this research which is the stress and coping model by Lazarus and Folkman (1984). Third, six models of turnover and retention will be explored in this chapter. Two models of employee turnover and retention which are Lee and Mitchells (1994) the unfolding model of turnover and Mitchell et al.s (2001) job embeddedness model are two of the main theories applied in this research. Subsequently, empirical studies which employed these two models will be discussed. Then, few empirical studies associated with turnover intention and voluntary turnover specifically in downsizing context will be discussed. The seventh section of this chapter deals with two work-related stressors, namely job insecurity and role overload experienced by survivors following an organizational downsizing and their influences on turnover intention. Finally, the conclusion of this chapter deals with the research gaps identified from the literature review and how this research will close these gaps. 2.1 DOWNSIZINg A large amount of the research on organizational downsizing that has emerged over the past 25 years has entered on two main research questions as identified by Datta et al. (2010). They were (1) What precipitates employee downsizing? and (2) What are the effects of downsizing from the standpoint of individual attitudes/behavior and organizational performance? (Datta et al., 2010). The main focus of this section is the effects of downsizing on individual employees attitudes and behaviors. First of all, the downsizing strategies employed by organizations will be examined. The second section will briefly summarize the anticipated and actual economic impacts on downsized organizations. Finally, empirical studies pertaining to the impacts of organizational downsizing on surviving employees (managers and non-managers) will be discussed. 2.1.1 Downsizing Strategies Three forms of downsizing implementation strategies have been identified: workforce reduction, organization redesign, and systemic strategy (Gandolfi, 2008). The workforce reduction strategy focused on headcount reduction and employed tactics such as layoffs, retrenchments, early retirements, natural attrition, hiring freeze, buy-out packages, transfers, and out-placement. Second, work redesign strategy concentrated on reducing work itself instead of cutting the number of employees. It included tactics such as phasing out functions, hierarchical levels, departments or divisions, redesigning tasks and consolidating units. Third, the systemic strategy emphasized on the organizational culture and the attitudes and values of its employees. Previous studies have shown that most organizations practiced workforce reduction strategies to downsized company (Gandolfi, 2005), while layoffs were the most common way to downsize (Mishra Mishra, 1994). 2.1.2 The Expected and Actual Economic Consequences of Downsizing Organizations adopted downsizing for a number of reasons, the most common reason was to improve efficiency, effectiveness and the productivity in the organizations (Cascio, 1993; Kets de Vries Balazs, 1997; Mone, 1994; Savery Luks, 2000). While efficiency concerned an organizations ability to do things better, effectiveness entailed an organizations ability to do the right things in order to survive (Budros, 1999). Beneficial consequences in terms of cost savings considerations were among the expected outcomes of organizations downsized (Cascio, Young, Morris, 1997). De Meuse, Venderheiden and Bergmann (1994) mentioned that organizations reduced employment costs by cutting employees who were not performing well. According to Cascio (1993) and Kets de Vries and Balazs (1997), expected economic benefits included lower expense ratios, increased return of investment, higher profits and stock prices. Another economic benefit resulted from organizations was being able to increase value for their shareholders (Cascio, 1993; Cascio et al., 1997; De Meuse et al., 1994). Additionally, other benefits as a result from downsizing included lower overhead, smoother communication, increased entrepreneurship, and heightened productivity (Cascio, 1993; Kets de Vries Balazs, 1997). In addition, Mone (1994) suggested that benefits may also be realized in the forms of lower average salaries for the less senior surviving work force, fewer management layer and flatter organizational structures. Finally, downsizing helped organizations to remain competitive in the increasingly global marketplace (Ugboro, 2006). As per Cascio et al. (1997) downsized organizations should be able to lower their labor cost, and as a result in increased earnings or to control product prices to improve competitiveness. As such, organizations have been urged to become lean and mean through downsizing activities, by took into account costs and other competitive consideration on national and international level (Appelbaum, Simpson, Shapiro, 1987, p. 68). Irrespective of the intended benefits as mentioned above, the general consequences of the economic impact of downsizing were negative (Budros, 1999; De Meuse et al., 1994; Gandolfi, 2008). Although a few organizations have reported increased financial performance; however, majority of the downsized organizations have reported decreased levels of efficiency, effectiveness, productivity and profitability (Gandolfi, 2008). Even though downsizing is used as a cost reduction strategy by organizations, there was evidence that downsizing does not decreased costs as desired. On the contrary, costs may actually increase in some cases (McKinley, Sanchez, Schick, 1995). A number of hard-to-quantify costs were listed, including costs of quality as a result of increased rework, scrap, inspection and overtime costs for surviving employees whose workload increased and forgone new business opportunities as they did not have the resources to take on the new work (Mabert Schemenner, 1997). Mirvis (1 997) cited that over one third of the downsizing organizations that were surveyed reported that unexpected increased in number of temporary workers and consultants and the need for surviving employees to work overtime and to be retrained. Moreover, Bruton, Keels, and Shook (1996) reported that the stock price for downsized organizations decreased after two years of downsizing. In a recent study by Yu and Park (2006) which analyzed financial data of 258 listed Korean firms between 1997 and 2002, downsizing organizations suffered more financial difficulties than organizations that did not downsized. Downsizing resulted in an increase in the organizations profits and efficiency but no effects on employee productivity. Furthermore, there was some evidence to suggest that those organizations which had downsized reported lower measures of profitability than those did not (Carswell, 2005; Mentzer, 1996). Empirical studies also found that downsizing had a negative impact on corporate reputation (Love Kraatz, 2009; Zyglidopoulos, 2005). Gandolfi (2008) contend the following statements in review of available studies: Most firms adopted downsizing strategies did not reap economic and organizational benefits; Non-downsized firms financially outperformed downsized forms in the short-, medium- and long-run (Macky, 2004; Morris, Cascio, Young., 1999); While some firms had shown positive financial outcomes, there was no empirical evidence to suggest a correlation between downsizing and improved financial performance (Macky, 2004; Morris et al., 1999); Some firms have reported positive financial indicators in the short term, yet the long-term financial consequences of downsizing have been shown to be consistently negative. 2.1.3 Impacts of Downsizing on Surviving Employees This section will examine the impacts of organizational downsizing on two categories of employees, namely managers and non-managers. 2.1.3.1 Impacts on Surviving managers A number of studies were conducted to identify the impacts of downsizing on managers (e.g. Dopson, Risk, Stewart, 1992; Thomas Dunkerley, 1999; Thomas Linstead, 2002). The literature below will review empirical studies concerning impacts on surviving managers as consequences of organizational downsizing. Foremost, three main aspects were identified which are longer working hour and intensified work regimes, wider roles and responsibilities, and managerial career. Subsequently, surviving managers attitudes toward organizational downsizing will be explored too. Longer Working Hours and Intensified Work Regimes Thomas and Dunkerley (1999) conducted a study to examine the UK middle managers experiences of downsizing and to discover how these experiences influenced their roles and nature of middle management. Data collection was divided into two phases. Phase one comprised of a 50 case-study organizations, involving interviews with key managers (senior line and HR) and middle managers. While phase two involved in-depth analysis of up to ten interviews with middle managers in ten organizations drawn from the original cohort. A wide range of organizations were involved in the study, included oil, brewing, insurance, local authorities, health service, military, civil service agencies, manufacturing, engineering, music industry, retail and distribution from both private and public sectors. Managers interviewed reported longer working hours and intensified work regimes. They experienced a significant increased in the number of hours worked, including at work and at home during evenings and on the weekends. However, majority of the managers pointed that this long hour worked was through their choice and necessity to get the job done rather than through presenteeism or fear of job loss (Thomas Dunkerly, 1999, p. 162). Similar findings were presented by Thomas and Linstead (2002) based on a wider study in the UK of approximately 150 middle managers in 50 organizations that had undergone major organizational restructuring. A wide range of private and public sector organizations included oil, brewing, insurance, manufacturing, local authorities, health, armed forces, engineering, logistics, mineral extraction and privatized utilities were involved in the study. A qualitative, inductive and multi-methods approach had been adopted and specifically involved case studies that focused on an individual middle managers subjective experiences. Likewise, problems of worked longer hours and unpaid overtime were reported by McCann et al. (2004) in a comparison study between Japanese and Anglo-American management systems based on interviews with senior or HR managers and middle managers in 30 large organizations. Both private and public sectors organizations comprised the sample and included steel manufacturing, heavy mechanical engineering, brewing, automotive, electronics, financial services, retail, healthcare, local government and central government. Zemke (1990) also reported that middle managers worked more hours than before downsizing took place. A variety of reasons were being identified which contributed to the intensification of work faced by middle managers. They included wider roles and responsibilities, flatter structures, reduced in number of middle managers, presenteeism through fear and job insecurity, pressure from peer to perform, performance cultures with increased individual accountability and the necessity to keep pace with constant change. (McCann et al., 2004; Thomas Dunkerley, 1999; Thomas Linstead, 2002). Wider Roles and Responsibilities Dopson et al. (1992) conducted a small-scale study to look into the changes affected middle managers and their reactions to these changes in both public and private sectors. Two phrases of data collection were conducted. In the first phase, eight general case studies were conducted by interviewing a senior manager (training manager) and on average six middle managers in each case. The second phase of the research comprised of interviews with twenty middle managers in each of four case studies (a computer company, a car manufacturing company, a new public agency, and an autospares company), two to three senior managers, the personnel and training manager(s), and in the public-sector case the trade union representatives. The interviews results indicated that middle management jobs became more general, with greater responsibilities and a wider range of tasks. These findings were supported by the studies of McCann et al. (2004), Thomas and Dunkerley (1999), and Thomas and Linstead (2002) . The removal of layers of middle management had resulted in an increasing span of control was a common feature of most middle management jobs in studies conducted (e.g., Dopson et al., 1992; Thomas Dunkerley, 1999; Zemke, 1990). Generally, middle managers were responsible for a wider mix and a greater number of subordinates than before (Dopson et al., 1992). On top of that, middle managers experienced significant increased of workload (Dopson et al., 1992; McCann et al., 2004; Thomas Dunkerley, 1999; Thomas Linstead, 2002). Middle managers had a greater responsibility for a wider range of duties for which they were now clearly more accountable (Dopson et al., 1992). Their roles ranged from technical and professional trends to more generic management, with tasks such managing, financing, budgeting and forecasting (Thomas Dunkerley, 1999). They needed to be more flexible (McCann et al., 2004), and obtained more generalist skills such as financial knowledge, ability to manage staff o f different backgrounds and a greater marketing and strategic orientation (Dopson et al., 1992). While McCann et al. (2004) found that middle managers were doing less managing of staff and more short-term, task focused co-operative group work. They were more likely to be managing subordinates in groups and tasks in a flattened hierarchy. Their job titles often bore little resemblance to their actual work tasks. Besides that, middle managers faced pressure from below due to the increased spans of control, constraint of resources and increased customer accountability. Furthermore, pressures were faced from above to perform a range of targets and performance indicators (Dopson et al., 1992; McCann et al., 2004; Thomas Dunkerley, 1999). Newell and Dopson (1996) in their attempt to investigate the impact of restructuring on middle management job and careers discovered that middle managers had to meet more stringent budgetary and quality targets as a result from interviews with 20 middle managers in telecommunication industry. The shift from physical commodities to information implied a shift from hierarchies of specialization to flexible networks of creativity and information sharing (McCann et al., 2004). Middle managers had less opportunity to fall back that their judgments was hampered by a lack of information due to the advancement of information and communication technology (Dopson et al., 1992). A number of middle managers commented on their needs to work in a variety of relationships, with manager and staff in organizations overseas, as well as spending time on oversea visits (Dopson et al., 1992). As consequences discussed above, stress-related problems and illnesses, role overload, tensions with home-life and impoverished life-styles were reported as a result from the long hours worked and increased roles and responsibilities (Thomas Dunkerley, 1999). Managerial Careers after Organizational Downsizing In terms of managerial career, both negative and positive views will be depicted as below. Individual middle manager retained responsibility for his/her own career (Newell Dopson, 1996). The trend towards individual accountability and individual contracts was noticed. Career advancement opportunities were declined due to the wide gaps between levels in the hierarchy and wider spans of control (Thomas Dunkerley, 1999). There were concerns about future career paths as the management hierarchy has been reduced (Dopson et al., 1992). Likewise, career opportunities were thought to have significantly decreased and there were no clear paths for middle managers (Newell Dopson, 1996). Some potential career paths were identified, such as the notion of filling dead mens shoes or promotion by the back door, that was being promoted because your face fitted, or you were good mates with the senior manager (Newell Dopson, 1996, p. 15). Majority of the managers commented on a lack of information provided by the organization about their role and future in the organization and about their feelings of lack of control after changes took place (Newell Dopson, 1996; Thomas Linstead, 2002). Some managers felt more insecure feelings on further changes and complained that the refocusing of tasks made them to lose certain enjoyable aspects of job (Dopson et al., 1992). They faced problems adapting to changes, especially when the changes were unexpected and the employees were not fully consulted about those changes (Dopson et al., 1992). Some middle managers felt that they are stuck in a situation which was continually demanding in terms; however, without the support of proper training and development (Newell and Dopson, 1996, p. 18). Likewise, middle managers felt that they were losing the plot in their organization with increased feelings of insecurity and uncertainty (Thomas Linstead, 2002, p. 88). Middle managers had a great sense of vulnerability that middle managers are an easy target (Thomas Linstead, 2002, p. 85). In contradiction, some middle managers reported positive experiences from downsizing (Thomas Dunkerley, 1999). A number of the middle managers felt a reduction in the frustration of their job (Dopson et al., 1992). Some reasons were identified to address such claim. First, the shorter hierarchy in the organizations meant that the middle managers were closer to top management and the strategic and policy arena (Dopson et al., 1992). They claimed to have greater control over their working lives and resources that they need, greater power of decision making, problem-solving, more innovative and strategic input (Dopson et al., 1992; Thomas Dunkerley, 1999). Thus, middle managers had more entrepreneurial roles. Many middle managers commented on feelings of job fulfillment and enrichment. Some surviving middle managers perceived increased career opportunities as some beneficial retirement packages had freed up the senior end of middle management. As a consequence, the profile of middle m anagement was getting younger (Thomas Dunkerley, 1999). Furthermore, the reduction in promotion opportunities were may be offset in part by the introduction of more performance-related pay (Dopson et al., 1992). Ebadan and Winstanley (1997) conducted a study which focused on getting the managers views of changes occurred and their perceptions of how the new career paths could be and should be forged. As a result, 42 respondents identified worse career prospects. However, despite the overall perception of worsening career prospects, the managers generally felt that their career prospects were better in the reorganized organizations than elsewhere. Work Attitudes of Surviving Managers Levitt et al., (2008) carried out a study to investigate the effects of downsizing on the survivors of layoffs in a large insurance organization. In-depth interviews with four middle managers were conducted to determine surviving middle managers attitudes pertaining to downsizing. Middle managers reported negative feelings of apathy, fear, distrust and anger toward the organization. Middle managers reported no loyalty or commitment to organization anymore. They no longer felt obligated to perform above and beyond the call of duty and no longer do so. These characteristics were consistent with the term as survivor syndrome (Devine et al., 2003, p.110). Similarly, in an attempt to know more about how middle managers responded to the demands of downsizing, ONeill and Lenn (1995, p. 25) found that surviving middle managers were anger, anxiety, cynicism, resentment, resignation, desire for retribution and hope. Middle managers reported high level of stress after downsizing. The type of stress was no longer isolated to the workloads; though, the increasingly feelings of job insecurity. They also indicated they felt stress relative to the constant organizational changes (Levitt et al., 2008). The study conducted by Luthans and Sommer (1999) found that managers reported lower level of organizational commitment, lower job satisfaction and workgroup trust following an organizational downsizing. Middle managers had lower morale and long-term commitment to organization due to the lack of resources and rewards and the constant pressure to reduce costs (Thomas Dunkerley, 1999). Correspondingly, majority of the respondents in the study by Ebadan and Winstanley (1997) indicated that they would have lower morale and motivation due to a possible decreased in promotion opportunities. The lower levels of commitment and trust of middle managers were resulted from the aspect of freedom to make decision. Fr eedom for middle managers to make strategic decisions had not always increased along with the growing of variety and creativity of middle management tasks (McCann et al., 2004). On the other hand, in the study by Thomas and Dunkerley (1999), middle managers reported higher job satisfaction level from increased empowerment over their work roles. Ugboro (2006) carried out a study to determine the relationship between job redesign, employee empowerment and intent to quit measured by affective organizational commitment among survivors of organizational restructuring and downsizing. The respondents of this study comprised of both middle managers and employees in supervisory positions. A total of 438 useable questionnaires have been used for data analysis purpose. The results showed significant positive relationships between job redesign, empowerment and affective commitment. The study showed that both job redesign and employee empowerment that enhanced survivors sense of impact and job meaningfulness could facilitate survivors affective commitment and reduced their turnover intention. In spite of the middle managers attitudes as mentioned above, Allen et al., (2001) revealed that the middle mangers attitudes changed over time after downsizing. The data was collected through surveyed 106 managers experienced a downsizing regarding organizational commitment, turnover intentions, job involvement, role clarity, role overload, satisfaction with top management and satisfaction with job security. The results generally indicated that downsizing had a significant impact on work attitudes, the impact varied over time and that the initial impact was generally negative. The findings indicated that the most negative impact on attitudes occurred during the immediate post-downsizing period (Allen et al., 2001). A later study by Levitt et al. (2008) opposed to the previous findings by Allen et al. (2001). Middle managers reported transitional changes in their feelings over time; however, these changes or transitions were predominantly from positive to negative. They reported posi tive feelings initially that changed to negative feelings and these negative feelings continued to grow overtime (Levitt et al., 2008). 2.1.3.2 Impacts on Surviving Non-managers In 1994, Mone conducted a study to examine how individual-level factors (self-efficacy, self-esteem, personal goals, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment) affected workers decision concerning turnover intention to leave the downsizing organization. A total of 145 employees at a U.S. manufacturing firm that experienced downsizing in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s were the respondents of the study. The findings suggested that self-efficacy was positively related to turnover intention. Furthermore, task self-esteem, but not role and global self-esteem had a negative impact on turnover intention. A 3-year longitudinal panel study was conducted by Armstrong-Stassen (2002) to compare the impacts on employees who had been declared redundant (N=49) in the initial downsizing stage, but who remained in the organization, and employees who had not been designated redundant (N=118). Data was collected in time T1 (early 1996), T2 (6 months later), T3 (1997), and T4 (1999). Employees designated redundant reported significantly higher level of job satisfaction at T4 compared with other three periods. While at T1, they reported lower job satisfaction than those declared nonredundant, but by T4 they reported higher level of job satisfaction than employees designated nonredundant. Additionally, both group of employees reported significant increase in job security between T1/T2 and T3 and also between T3 and T4. Devine et al. (2003) conducted a study to compare the outcomes experienced by both victims and survivors involved in a major downsizing program. The final sample consisted of 608 responses (435 continuing employees, and 173 displaced, re-employed employees). The findings suggested that employees who continued to work in the downsized environment reported higher stress level than those individuals who had been displaced. Additionally, the displaced employees reported they had more job control, or autonomy than continuing employees. Furthermore, the moderating effect of perceived job control on the relationship between the environmental stressors (downsizing) and perceived employee stress was found, indicating that high perceptions of control lowered feeling of stress, and vice versa. Finally, displaced employees reported significantly higher level of job satisfaction, overall physical health and quality of life perceptions, and lower level of absenteeism and licit drug use than contin uing employees. Summary In a nutshell from the review of downsizing research, it revealed that most of the studies pertaining to surviving managers especially middle managers have been in the form of qualitative method in which they explore the work-related stressors experienced by surviving managers and their attitudes. Furthermore, the direct relationship between work-related stressors (role overload and job insecurity) and turnover intention has been underresearched in the context of downsizing.

Landscape Architecture Essay example -- essays papers

Landscape Architecture For my career opportunity project, I have chosen to take a look at the profession of landscape architecture. This field interest me for several reasons. First, I have always liked to draw and design and growing up I always wanted to be an architect or engineer. I felt that engineering put too many limitations on creativity, so architecture was the path of choice. Then, after working with my father’s small business for the past 6 doing some landscaping and lawn care, I decided that since I enjoyed working with plants and landscaping that I might want to look into a profession that would allow me to continue to work in those areas. Landscape architecture seemed to be the next logical choice, allowing me to continue being involved in the landscape industry and also to work much like I would in the field of architecture. When most people think of landscaping, they think of flower beds around a residence. The landscaping that a landscape architect is responsible for designing, however, rarely deals with residential landscapes and when it does so it is only on expensive projects. While landscape architects may do projects ranging form a few thousand dollars on up to as much as the customer would like to spend, the majority of their work is concentrated in the $30,000 to $15 million range (Pethel). You can see where few residential projects would fall into this range. However, this range is broad enough to encompass many different projects in ...

Unit 12 – Public Health – Task 1

During the 1800’s the overall health of the public was extremely poor, children and babies were dying in their thousands, and adults would work in the most horrific of conditions. Families of 8 or 9 would live in 1 room where they all slept, ate and washed if they had the water to, the sewage was all over the place as there was no proper sewage lines, People had to bath in the same water they urinated in, they also had to drink this dirty water as it was the only water they had access to.The working conditions were even worse as some people had to work in bare feet when there was sewage covering their toes, there was no health and safety regulation acts so people would have accidents every day and they would breathe in the most dangerous chemicals while working in large factories such as the cotton factory. Children as young as 8 were in work to earn clothes and food for themselves and to have a bed to sleep in at night instead of the waste covered floor. Most families were se nt to a work house where they worked 12-14 hour shifts in order to gain clothes, food and a bed to sleep in for the night.The families would be separated into men, women and children and they would work in different areas of the factory doing different jobs such as splitting ropes or breaking rocks, while living in the workhouse each family that were separated would have no access to their family members and birthdays weren’t even thought about because no births and deaths were recorded so the mothers and fathers would forget when they had their child and the child would be too young to know the date of its birthday.Most people would have died in the workhouse because they would be worked hard every day and some people would have accidents with the machinery and as there was no medical services the people would die of loss of blood or their wounds would get infected and they would have died of an infectious disease. As there was no medical service random women who had no trai ning or have no idea about how to deliver babies would help pregnant women give birth to their children and they would use all sorts of random equipment to cut the umbilical cord and some women even used their teeth as there was nothing sharp enough to cut it.During these times there were loads of diseases that would develop because of the lack of medical service, clean water and access to proper foods. The most common disease was cholera which would kill a house full of people within a couple of days and it would spread to the next family and kill them or make them very ill which would eventually kill them as there was no cure or medicine they could get hold so because of cholera people would die in there thousands as it was a very nasty disease.A scientist called Edward Chadwick was the first person to make a vaccine against cholera, he did this by injecting babies and children with a small amount of the disease along with some antibodies so the body could produce the right antibo dies to fight the disease and leave the child with immunity from cholera. The first act to come to power was the Public Health Act which came out in 1848. This man called John snow was the first person to make the connection between poor living conditions, such as dirty water, and the rise on disease.After this conclusion vaccinations were first created and used to get rid of smallpox. The next act to come into power was the midwifes act at in 1902 which came with the registration of midwifes act as well, both of these acts together ensured that women were trained in delivering babies and they were put on a register so doctors knew who were midwifes so they could send someone to assist in the birth process.Due to this a lot of babies were successfully born and they stayed alive for a lot longer as there was proper midwifes to aid the birth and make sure the umbilical cord was cut correctly using the proper equipment. After this was created the Central board of midwifes was made, thi s ensured that all people that were trained as midwifes due to the midwife act was registered with the central board. In 1904 there was an interdepartmental survey on physical deterioration which was used to find out the health of the population.Shortly after that the education act came out in 1906 which ensured that children go to school and get an education, it also brought out school meals where each child would get a hot meal and sometimes it will be the only hot meal they get that day. After that another education act came out in 1907 this ensured that schools had medical services which included a nit nurse who would check the children regulary for head lice. The school nurse would also be responsible for checking the children for signs of disease and illness.During that time the notification of births act came out which meant that each baby had to be registered after birth so the government can keep track of the population and it also was the start of the health visiting servi ce, this was created because the government had no idea how many births and deaths there were so they couldn’t plan medical treatments or build hospitals. So this was created so the government can keep track of ow the population was growing and what percentage of people were dying so they could try and fix the problems people were having. In 1911 the national insurance act came out which gave workers health insurance this would be paid for by the government taking some of their money from their pay cheques. Seven years later the emergency medical services act came in to power in 1918, this meant that there was an emergency service for people who need urgent medical care, this was the start of proper medical care.This came out because people who were in wold war one needed emergency care after being attacked. They needed emergency care to make sure the soldiers were looked after properly and injuries were checked and properly treated to stop them becoming infected and to stop soldiers dying. After a few years another emergency medical service act came out in 1940, this was introduced due to the war because people were getting injured and needed urgent medical care, so it was introduced to help the soldiers in need.After that was put into place the nation health service was born. In 1942 the nation health service was introduced to give people free health care and free health services such as dentistry. These services were free to anybody which meant that health problems could be dealt with properly. Doctors surgeries where built in most areas so people had a place to go, hospitals were also built in most busy areas around the country so people had a place to go when they had an emergency or if they needed to see a specialist doctor.In 1991 the national health service and community care act came out, this meant that there was more free doctors, more free hospitals around the country and there was new self-remedies to treat problems, for example people used salt bags to treat ear ache and brown paper and goose fat to treat chest infections. During the 20th century there were a number of papers/reports that came out which discussed what needed to be done and what is being done to help the country become healthier.The first report to come out was a report about rationalising, this was important because the country was in World War 2. The report was made to tell people that every day or one day a week they would be able collect certain food items and certain weights or quantities, this then made people healthier because they had what they needed to have a balanced diet and they weren’t allowed any different food which will make them unhealthy, it also allowed each person to have the same foods so they were all able to keep healthy and they were able to control how the nation te, which would make them healthier and stopping some of the health problems they were facing such as malnutrition. After that the Beveridge report came out i n 1942 which decided that there should be free health care for everybody. This meant that the working class had to pay taxes for the nation to get the free health care. At first there was free health care, free dental care and free glasses to everyone who needed them but after a while the government decided to put charged on dental care and glasses because they couldn’t afford to pay them.In 1980 the black report came out which was a paper concentrated on the differences in mortality rates and there was data on morbidity and health in a more positive perspective. In 1998 the Acheson report came out which explained that there were environmental factors that contributed to the health of people, for example the damp living conditions of the lower class can cause their children to develop asthma.After that in 1999 there was a paper released called Our Healthier Nation, which explained that there was a rise in cancers, aids, disease and mental health problems due to the environmen t, the paper also had recommendations the government could do to reduce the rise of people who have disease, cancers and mental health problems. In 2004 a paper came out which was called choosing health and making healthier choices which talked about people making healthier choices in food, cutting down on drinking and it also encouraged people to become more independent in being healthier.There has been a lot of changes in legislation relating to the health of the nation because over the years the health of people has changed and the diseases they are treating now are a lot different to what they are now, for example, back in the 1900’s the government had to deal with the mortality rate of babies and young children, but now the government are working on keeping the elderly and adults healthy and getting rid of cancers and other disorders.In the 1800’s the health of the nation was pretty poor because the living conditions were bad and there was no medical treatment or help available so many people died due to disease caused by dirty water, damp housing, cramp rooms and sewage waste. There were also a lot of babies dying due to polio and TB, whereas now a days there are vaccinations for them. Over the years health care has developed and the health of the nation has changed.We now have life support machines, x-ray machines and more advanced technology so we can keep babies alive, get rid of certain disease and we also have the scientific research and technology to create vaccines to make babies and young people immune to the diseases that killed most people in the 18-1900’s. This would mean that people are now healthier compared to the 1800’s.Over these years the infant mortality rate had dropped but the percentage of the population that smoke and drink are now much higher in most areas, so even though the government have tackled some problems that arose in the 19th century, they still have problems to tackle now which have developed through the second half of the 20th century. Infant death in the 1800’s was caused by diseases such as rubella and tuberculosis, whereas smoking and drinking cause further health problems that the government need to help tackle and reduce the number of cases.Smoking can cause, lung cancer, mouth cancer and even throat cancer. These problems can now be treated with chemotherapy or radiation to shop them spreading and to fight the cancer. If these issues where to be recognised in the 1800’s then they wouldn’t be able to do much about it and they would have left the patient to die because they had no proper technology to treat them and they didn’t have the scientific studies to show that the use of radiation can stop the cancer and in some cases cure it.So basically even though some problems have been tackled that were major issues in the 1800’s the government can’t say with 100% guarantee that the health of the nation is better because even th ough infant death rate has dropped quite a bit over the 20th century, and the life expectancy has increased by 30 years or so, the government still have problems to sort out that have developed during the 21st century, for example, the number of obese people in the UK had risen.In relation to the problems in the 19th century, then the government can say that as a nation we are healthier, but they can only relate it to the issues that was going on in that times, for example, the number of babies with tuberculosis has dropped and it is now at a normal rate, whereas babies were dying in there thousands in the 19th century. That could be used to explain that we are now healthier than when we were in the 1800’s. This is because of scientific research, technology and proper training of staff members in hospitals and doctors surgeries.

Language-rich classroom

It is necessary to admit that acquisition of new words shouldn’t be only particular stage in child development. Developing language skills is very important stage in literacy development of every child. Children acquire new words through everyday interactions with parents, friends and school teachers. Recent researches suggest that â€Å"number of words spoken to children in the first three years of life and the quality of the feedback they receive have a significant impact on their success in school†. (Lynn 1997) Many researchers and psychologists claim that children should be placed in language-rich environment to develop their skills better and faster. Language-rich environment at school is of great importance because children are provided with abundance of environmental print and text to practice reading, as well as they face written and oral language. Furthermore, children are allowed to ask for support of parents or caregivers. Such classrooms increase children’s awareness and help to develop alphabetic principles and enrich vocabulary. The role of a teacher in such classroom is integral as he/she supplies children with necessary textbooks and other materials. Distinguished feature of such classroom is that teachers don’t criticize their students; instead, they encourage them and involve in writing and reading activities. Conversation is an essential part of language-rich environment. The main characteristics of language-rich classroom are the following: 1.   teachers read books aloud every day because reading motivates conversation and, therefore, children develop new vocabulary, sentence structures, and they overcome fear to speak aloud; 2.   teachers encourage pretend talk and pretend play because opening â€Å"the frame of reference into the world of pretend gives additional opportunity for new vocabulary and predicting skills†; (What Are The Features 2006) 3.    teachers value children’ efforts and options meaning that teachers ask children to support their hypothesis or claim; it will help to develop though process and make children to defend their position and extend their thinking; 4.    children are treated as people with interesting and extraordinary experience meaning that children are encouraged during their mealtime or play time to discuss interesting moments with each other; (What Are The Features 2006) 5.    teachers introduce words – they can be written of every object in a classroom. There are many instructional strategies how to support language-rich environment. For example, teachers should speak slowly at first and shouldn’t distort their language. Nevertheless, two strategies seem to be of top priority in every classroom. Firstly, teachers should label every object in classroom because it will help newcomers to understand the meanings of the objects at school. Secondly, teachers school from the very beginning of the studies to assign classroom duties among all students because it will help them to consider themselves part of the classroom. Duties will also develop the sense of duty and responsibility. It goes without saying that all strategies suggest that students should be praised for their work, eve if the task is very simply. (Literacy Development 2004) Finally, parents and caregivers should be also interested and encourage taking part in children’s development. Researchers say that children who communicate with parents every day develop language skills better than children who don’t. Therefore, parent should understand that their children are interesting personality and they want to develop speaking, reading, writing and listening skills. Parents should talk to their children, firstly, about children’s everyday experiences and activities, ask them to describe object, relations with other students. Parent should consider that children are fond of pretend play and should make up stories and poems with them. Drawing and scribbling are the best ways to encourage writing. (What Are The Features 2006) References Lynn, Leon. (1997). Language-Rich Home and School Environments Are Key to Reading Success. Retrieved July 12, 2007, from http://www.edletter.org/past/issues/1997-ja/language.shtml   

Adrenoleukodystrophy essays

Adrenoleukodystrophy essays Adrenoleukodystrophy is a genetic disease that is passed on from mother to son. ALD is an X-linked disorder. That means it affects only males and is transmitted by a female carrier. This disorder is called X-linked since the genetic abnormality involves the X-chromosome. Women have two X-chromosomes while men only have one. In women, the affected X-chromosome, the one with the gene for ALD does not become active because of the presence of a normal copy of the gene on the other X-chromosome. Men have one X-chromosome and one Y-chromosome. In men who have an X- chromosome for X-ALD, there is no other X- chromosome for protection. ALD affects the nervous system in the brain. The disease strips away the coating or the covering of the nerves this covering is called myelin. What causes this to happen is the accumulation of long chain fatty acids that accumulate the brain and the adrenal glands. The body normally produces these fatty acids but they are broken down by proteins in the peroxisome in cells but in people with ALD this does not happen. The most common sing that a person has ALD is personality and behavioral changes. Followed by learning disabilities, vision problems, attention deficit disorder, short and long-term memory loss, and loss of coordination or gait. There is not a cure for ALD but there is a medicine that can slow down the process. The most famous cure is called Lorenzo oil this oil was developed by Augusto and michaela Odone, Lorenzos parents. When Lorenzo was first diagnosed with ALD they were told there was not a whole lot that could be done because there was not allot of information about the disease because it was relatively new. The doctors tried radiation therapy that and other experimental treatments with no luck. In the end the only thing that was done for the Lorenzo was he was put on a diet that was very strict and lacked all fatty acids that contributed to the ALD. While t ...

The Scarlet Letter Scaffol Scenes essays

The Scarlet Letter Scaffol Scenes essays The scaffold scenes are by far the most popular means of pointing out the perfect balance and structure of Hawthornes masterpiece. The first time we meet all the principal characters of the novel is in the first scaffold scene. The second of three crucial scaffold scenes appears exactly in the middle of the novel. Again, Hawthorne gathers all of his major characters in one place. Hawthorne brings all the principal characters together one more time in the third and final scaffold scene. This scene begins with the triumph of Dimmesdales sermon and ends with his death. These scenes unite the plot, themes, and symbols of the novel in a perfect balance. The basic structure for the novel is provided by the scaffold scenes because everything else revolves around what happens during these scenes. The first scaffold scene focuses on Hester and the scarlet letter. Hester stands alone with Pearl in her arms, a mere infant and sign of her sin. Meanwhile, a crowd of townspeople has gathered to watch her humiliation and to hear a sermon. Two important people in the crowd our Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale. Chillingworth, Hesters husband just returned from his long journey to America. Her lover, Dimmesdale, shares her platform as a sinner but not her public humiliation. Dimmesdale is present throughout the whole scene but he is very hesitant to admit that his is the secret lover, although Mr. Wilson is pestering him to find out who it is. He doesnt admit because he is afraid if he does confess it will ruin his reputation as a person and as a minister. Chillingworth demands Hester to give him the name of her partner in sin but she will not do so. In this scene, we have Hesters public repentance, Dimmesdales reluctance to admit his own guilt, and the beginning of Chillingworths devilish plot to find and ...