Category: Uncategorized

Teaching Philosophy and Goals

My Teaching Responsibilities

I work as an instructor of English language in New York City College. Since establishment of language department in the college in 1993, enrollment in the department has risen from 150 to over 1,100 students by 2013. The increase has mainly occurred due to presence of numerous immigrants in the United States from non-English-speaking countries who undertake studies the US. Students from China, Spain, Japan and other countries may not have adequate knowledge in English yet all lessons in the college are taught in this language. My role is to take such students through English lessons for them to sharpen linguistic skills and hence, comprehend texts and tutors’ talk in other lessons. The lessons also enable such students to converse effectively with American students and hence, make meaningful social relationships with fellow students (Fry et al, 2009).

I have a Masters degree in linguistics and teaching experience of more than two decades in the same field and thus, I fit well in the faculty. I have established that most people taking English as the second language (ESL) encounter various difficulties in the learning process, especially during initial stages, including cognitive load, cultural load, language load and learning load (Scales, 2008). Thus, I have a role to do extra instructional work to make lessons more meaningful and less confusing and overwhelming to the students.

My Teaching Philosophy and Goals

I like my teaching career since I love learning. I learn from students as I share my knowledge with them. I believe that a successful teacher must be a lifelong learner. My ideal classroom is comprised of students who love learning and who work together to understand new concepts and ideas and to solve problems. It is exciting, though a bit noisy. I am either moving around providing guidance or assistance to the students or am in the midst of an exciting debate with them. I believe in developing an atmosphere where students are willing to learn, do not fear making mistakes and are comfortable to express their problems.

The following are my goals that guide me to become an effective language instructor:

To encourage students to always seek clarifications and elaborations through asking questions

To encourage students to engage in debates and to teach them to think rather than to memorize

To teach students to solve problems rather than to always rely on me

To be always prepared through continuous research and practice

To integrate technology in the teaching practice

To inspire the students through good impressions and making fun during lessons

To instill passion for self-reflection among students and always inspire them to improve

To always answer questions regardless of number of times that a student asks

To be available to assist students even after classes

To always acknowledge students’ improvements

To be prepared to learn as I teach

To encourage lifelong learning

To recognize and embrace diversity

To be a mentor to students and represent what they aspire to be

Description of Teaching Methodology

I engage in various vital teaching activities, on top of those indicated in the goal’s section. When dealing with a new student the first thing I do is to cultivate positive attitude through making the student understand that grammar is a liberating rather than a constraining force. I support this by allowing students to pursue topics of their interest. However, I allow this only for topics that are valuable for learning. As Power (2007) and Osterman and Kottkamp (2004) argue, student’s interests should be broadened through a creatively selected and implemented curriculum. I also adopt several activities that help to minimize difficulties in understanding grammar terminologies. I try to lighten learning difficulty through rewriting and providing explanations of grammar terminologies. This involves breaking them down and explaining them in ways that are comprehensible to the students. I like presenting grammar terminologies at the start of a lesson and define them. I avail different texts to learners containing terminologies but varying in reading difficulty and linguistic complexity. Finally, I constantly search for knowledge in available resources to gain understanding of grammar issues and how to explain them. As Borova (2012) and Biggs and Tang (2007) explain, it is vital to give explanations to errors in students’ work and avoid giving negative feedback that might de-motivate them.

Course Syllabi and Assignments

I am responsible for creating detailed tutorials, assignment sheets, handouts week by week logs, quizzes, rubrics, presentation outlines and other documents provided in this department. The following are exhibits of such documents:

Presentation outline: L104 Language development

Rubric: L103:Non-verbal communication techniques

Quiz: L106 Culturally responsive communication

Handout: L102 Verbal communication techniques

Assignment Sheet: L201 Responsive listening

Tutorial exhibit: L203 role of language in learning

Teaching Effectiveness

Peer Assessment of My Teaching

Teacher’s name ________ Tom Franklin ___________________________ Date May 30, 2013

Rating: Good

Strengths Identified:

Demonstrates knowledge of students

Selects instructional goals

Manages classroom procedures

Establishes a culture of learning

Creates an environment of respect and rapport

Uses questioning and discussion techniques

Maintains accurate records

Identified growth areas:

Need to use both implicit and explicit approaches to teaching grammar

Teacher’s name ________ Jane Doe ___________________________ Date May 30, 2013

Rating: Good

Strengths identified

Demonstrates knowledge of students

Selects instructional goals

Manages classroom procedures

Establishes a culture of learning

Demonstrates knowledge in behavior and teamwork management

Uses assessments for instruction

Identified growth areas

Need to use both implicit and explicit teaching approaches

Teaching Improvement Activities

One main weakness that I have in teaching grammar, as identified by my peers, is failure to adopt both implicit and explicit approaches in teaching grammar. I have learnt that grammar teaching should not be restricted to analysis of written documents. Rather, it should also be provided in context or in an implicit manner by examining living speech. To incorporate this approach, I will provide function-based lessons in which I will be applying grammar in context after undertaking grammar-based lessons (Merriam et al, 2007).

Future Teaching Goals

Drawing from this reflection, I find the need for more methodologies and approaches that will help in creating and in cultivating positive attitude among ESL learners towards grammar. Secondly, I will have to incorporate implicit teaching of grammar, alongside the explicit approach. I also find the need for additional supplementary materials that will help in clarifying terminologies to students. Generally, this reflection has helped me in identifying my competencies and competencies and needs for personal development as a grammar instructor. The reflection has helped me to identify areas of improvement which may lead to a culture of excellence evidenced by improved learning and reduction in learning difficulties encountered by grammar students.

References

Biggs, J., & Tang, C. (2007). Teaching for Quality Learning at University. Berkshire:

Open University Press.Borova, T. A. (2012), The higher school teaching staff professional development

system creation on the adaptive management principles, Pedagogics, Psychology, Medical-Biological Problems of Physical Training and Sports. 3, pp. 16 – 20

Fry, H., Ketteridge, S., & and Marshall, S. (2009). A Handbook for Teaching and

Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing Academic Practice. New York: Routledge.

Merriam, S., Caffarella, R., & Baumgartner, L. (2007). Learning in Adulthood: A

Comprehensive Guide. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Osterman, K., & Kottkamp, R. (2004). Reflective Practice for Educators:

Professional Development to Improve Student Learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Power, J. (2007), Staff Development, Journal of Access Services, 3(3), pp. 65 – 70

Scales, P. (2008). Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector. Berkshire: Open

University Press

Class as Relational Peer Responses

Peer 1: Jack

Your assertion that the biggest variable when it comes to “income tier” would have to be education level for all individuals. Again, I agree that age also plays an important role. When you flip the ages around for each race and education level, there is a dramatic increase in middle and upper class income levels. It is also true that race is a massive variable in income tier differences. In summary, the income levels are completely incomparable based on the amount of money and distribution across the different races and ethnic groups: whites make more compared to Hispanic and Black people. You pose an interesting question on the steps that can be taken in the future to increase the chances to be in the middle and upper income tiers besides the focus on education. I think there is no way of avoiding the role of education in determining where one falls in the income tiers. Primarily, education levels mean the level of specialization, and therefore we can never eliminate it as a variable.

Peer 2: Angelica

I agree that the area one lives in plays a vital role in defining the income tier. I also agree with your position that education is an important variable because the higher the education the higher the chances of one becoming middle or upper income increased especially with White and Asian people. Additionally, age, race, and capitalism play a big role because the majority of people who have a strong chance of becoming upper-class are white and Asian, up to a certain age where income begins to fall. He patterns are further supported by the ability of white and Asian people to invest, through capitalism thus allowing them to remain wealthy over time. Your question on if the results would remain the same or different if the study was conducted elsewhere is interesting. I think the same would apply in all other capitalistic nations in the Western countries. However, the issue of races would not play such a huge role. The differences between black and white people would not be so pronounced.

Q1.

Classic political economists believed that the value attached to a commodity is directly related the labour that was put up in production of the same commodity. This is later expounded that labour in its own unchanging value is the real and ultimate measure for value in the current world and this value may be showed by, the amount of money paid for the commodity which is pointed out as the nominal value of the same (Milios, Dimoulis, & Economakis, 2018). The real value of the labour however maybe met by difficulty in valuing the actual effort that went into the production process since some of the labour is more skilled and experienced than others. In spite of this, the economist argue that the difference brought out here is later balanced within the “haggling and bargaining” nature of the market which tends to correct the true value of the labour (Kurz, 2010). Socially necessary labour is the current labour effort required to produce a given output whereas socially average time is the given labour time necessary to give a given output.

Q2.

Marx and Schumpeter showed that what really set of the difference and made firms stand out in promotion of capitalism is the firm’s ability to have access to better technology, better suppliers and better firm organisational plans. This ability, as pointed out by Marx and Schumpeter, strikes at the margins of the firm foundation directly and impacts the very lives of these firms (Phillimore, 2001). An example is the giant Apple company which strategy of competitiveness is put to the internal factors, specifically the production factors giving the company the higher competitive advantage which offsets it as a minor monopoly.

Q3.

Ernest Mandel argues that the rate of profit in the monopoly sector is limited by and dependent on the production of surplus value in the competitive sector (Mandel, 1967). He explained the dynamics of crisis and uneven development in the concept of surplus profit in Marxist economic model. According to Mandel, inequalities, crises, wars, mass poverty, majority oppression, and perversion through fascism are not external disturbances, accidents, nor temporary interruptions but logical and natural expressions of the free market (Freeman, 1996). In his observation, Mandel suggested that capitalism is relatively unstable and dependent on surplus value in the free market economy. He observed this based on the movement of capital, labour, and the limits to equalization of different profit rates.

Q4.

The precariat social group is essentially a class of people in the job market whom employment mode or type is in anyway structured to be insecure (Standing, 2013). They include temporal employments and freelancers on the other hand the “reserve army of labour” refers to a group of people in the society that are unemployed or their position of employment is lowly rated to the skills they carry (Grover & Piggott, 2005). It may also refer to the mismatch in occupational places compared to the skills possessed where the current occupation is in lower rating compared to the skills possessed. Insecure employment and underemployment status have greatly affected the general wellbeing of the people involved. This is both mentally and health wise. It is seen that with underemployment status the people involved happen to showcase a lot of dissatisfaction. This is accrued to the fact that they are working in a field not related to their profession or lowly rated to the set of skills at disposal. Underemployment results such as low-income rates are a major cause of increased stress levels within the working groups (Standing, 2013). This is also evident with the class of people under the precariat jobs section. These two groups represent a mentally deprived group associated with day to day worry of termination and feature expectations that are mostly unpredictable.

Q6.

Labour shedding in one part of the economy means there are increased numbers of unemployed personnel in the economy. An increased number of unemployed people in the economy reduces the labour cost due to the increased number of people readily available for employment (Boeri and Keese, 1992). When there is increased supply of labour in the economy it results to less choosy nature of the unemployed group to the jobs available. This means that people tend to refrain from being specific on the skills they possess for job securing which results to people working in fields they are not necessarily skilled in for even lower wages. Therefore, when the is labour shedding in one part of the economy, the other parts gain the advantage of low cost of labour that adds up to increased profit levels in these economy parts. Mechanization in work places is a great way for lowering production cost with other production benefits (Kongolo, 2010). Adopting mechanized systems lowers the number of employees needed in the firm hence the firms cut on the payments of the wages of the employees cut from the workforce and with that firms cuts on the wages in the event of production mechanization. When the levels of unemployment rise in the economy it results to increased labour supply which does not match the demand of labour in place. A higher labour supply with regard to the labour demand results to lower prices on the labour value available and this is an advantage to the labour-intensive firms. These firms are able to access adequate labour at cheaper prices.

Q7.

Productivity levels in firms or organizations is highly dependent on the leadership system in these settings. Proper leadership is accrued to the set of skills possessed by the personnel put in the higher positions in the firms and organisations. For higher productivity the leadership in these areas should possess a morale captivating skill with which to encourage and motivate the entire workforce for maximization of their output (Soltanisehat, Alizadeh, & Mehregan, 2019). The motivating factor in leadership should also support teamwork within the workforce for a unified goal internally. Socially, leaders should be great team workers and support team working within their group too. Team working is a great tool to ensure the goals of the organisation are met. Synchronization of the entire team makes the focus remain clear to every employ preventing deviation while promoting hardworking and determination. Organizational skills are also very critical to the success of the organization. Some of the necessary organizational skill include proper work delegation, time management skills, proper and effective communication skill and critical thinking with analytical organisation and formulation of ideas.

Q9.

Public goods are products or services that are available for use by all people in the sector the product is necessary. These products are said to have the characteristics of non-rivalry and non-excludable. The users of these products cannot be exempted to use them even when they are not able to compensate the same. These products are also not affected by multiple persons using them in that the use by one person does not affect the use by another (Bramoullé & Kranton, 2007). Landmarks and facilitating infrastructure are products usable by multiple people and are meant to operate this way in order to serve their estimated purpose and to be cost effective. These products are meant to be treated as public goods since their ownership is not assigned to a single individual and their nature is meant to serve a group of people without exemption.

References

Freeman, A. (1996). Ernest Mandel’s Contribution to Economic Dynamics. https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/64974/1/MPRA_paper_64974.pdf

Mandel, E. (1967). The labor theory of value and Monopoly Capitalism. International Socialist Review, 28(4), 29-42.

Kurz, H. D. (2010). Technical progress, capital accumulation and income distribution in classical economics: Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Marx. The European journal of the history of economic thought, 17(5), 1183-1222.

Milios, J., Dimoulis, D., & Economakis, G. (2018). Karl Marx and the classics: An essay on value, crises and the capitalist mode of production. Routledge.

Phillimore, J. (2001). Schumpeter, Schumacher and the greening of technology. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 13(1), 23-37.

Standing, G. (2013). Defining the precariat: A class in the making. Eurozine. https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/18276/1/Defining%20the%20precariat%20Eurozine%20Apr%202013.pdfBoeri, T., & Keese, M. (1992). From labour shortage to labour shedding: labour markets in Central and Eastern Europe. Communist Economies and Economic Transformation, 4(3), 373-394.

Kongolo, M. (2010). Job creation versus job shedding and the role of SMEs in economic development. African journal of business management, 4(11), 2288-2295.

Bramoullé, Y., & Kranton, R. (2007). Public goods in networks. Journal of Economic theory, 135(1), 478-494.

Arak Mcduffie

Instructor’s Name

Course Tittle

Date

My text is a memoir. It signifies a non-fiction genre written in the first person about a slice of life. It is a specific type of narrative that is autobiographical in nature but not meant to be as comprehensive as biography. My text tries to give a story with a proper narrative shape, focus, and subject matter, involving a reflection. By being a memoir, it is associated with popular personalities. Writing this memoir is essential in helping me to identify the threads and themes in my life and make sense of what I have lived. Writing about life that concerns me is a transformative and healing journey. It also contributes to recorded history and my legacy to the world, friends, and family. I think that memoir is functional in preserving history through my eyes.

I chose the memoir genre because memoirs are true stories that bring the inner story that ties to something universal. I find that writing a memoir is worth it because I have a clear purpose for it, and the story is worth sharing. I have reflected on my life, and I am passionate about communicating what I have learned with the world. It helps me to identify integrity, connectedness, empowerment and finding the meaning of life. Preserving my life story leaves a meaningful legacy that offers intergenerational connectedness. I chose this genre since I desire to share my personal experiences about epic battles. I am the main character in the memoir, whereby I reflect on my truth about life and experiences. At first, I wanted to choose the autobiography genre, but a limitation forced me to choose memoir over autobiography. In writing an autobiography, readers might feel that my true purpose in writing is to persuade, maybe to be embellishing or even lying, instead of informing. I chose the particular tools in composing because I wanted to narrow my focus, include more than just a story, tell the truth, and put the readers in my shoes. If given an opportunity to start over, I would use something else.

My research paper’s argument changed as I revised it into his new genre. It changed in a way that the new genre transformed to involve written depictions of my personal experience. It changed to allow me to establish a working relationship with the readers. For readers, these new genres aid in organizing information so that they can more effortlessly make sense of what they are about to read. The way that I used or cited sources changed in a way that I memoir; I do not have to cite or quote another person unnecessarily since I write the memoir from my personal experience.

I learned to research, outlining, reading comprehension, and time management from this project that might transfer to a future class or writing experience. I have been equipped with thinking and communication skills. Writing has done my thinking and learning visible and permanent. It has also fostered my ability to explain and refine my ideas to others and myself. It is something very significant and powerful tool that will be beneficial in everyday life. Writing has helped me to store information, make a permanent record, and communicate well.

The highlights of things I have learned this semester include writing ability, applying critical thinking skills, and identifying cause and effect. Things that I will take away from the class include higher vocabulary, adaptability, creativity, and reflection. One thing that I remember about college writing is that writing equips us with thinking and communication skills; it expresses who we are as people. When we study, we learn to appreciate words and their power. I have improved to a great extent as a writer.

My topic is Nutrition and Diet for College Students in the United States. The aim of the research will be to investigate nutrition among college students. This may include learning what meals most of them take, do they cook, buy take outs, eat in school cafeteria as well other sources of how they get their food. This information will be vital in examining the nutritional values of college students, how health they are and a look at occurrence of common nutritional problems such as obesity

My population for my research is college students

Sample population will be probability sample because the participants will be randomly selected to participate in the research

For compensation, the college students who participate in the survey will receive monetary compensation of $10. Compensating of participants is important because they take their time to participate in your research. However, this may also attract people who are not students.

In conducting this research, we will be looking for students in colleges. Being a statistic that may require me to travel, I will use SurveyMonkey instead in conducting my survey. The survey will let the student know why the research is being conducted with an option of “I consent” and “I do not consent”. Those who consent can continue to fill in the survey.

Strengths of my sampling method is that the data is much more reliable, and absence of sampling bias. With probability sampling there is increased accuracy of sampling error estimation and one can also make inferences on the picked population. The disadvantage is it is time consuming and expensive when compared to non-probability sampling.

Bias: Non-students participating in the survey: With survey specifically designed for college students the survey may not get access to all college students.

Use of Survey Monkey may not include students who may not have access to online resources at the time

Q1.

Classic political economists believed that the value attached to a commodity is directly related the labour that was put up in production of the same commodity. This is later expounded that labour in its own unchanging value is the real and ultimate measure for value in the current world and this value may be showed by, the amount of money paid for the commodity which is pointed out as the nominal value of the same (Milios, Dimoulis, & Economakis, 2018). The real value of the labour however maybe met by difficulty in valuing the actual effort that went into the production process since some of the labour is more skilled and experienced than others. In spite of this, the Economist argue that the difference brought out here is later balanced within the “haggling and bargaining” nature of the market which tends to correct the true value of the labour (Kurz, 2010). Haggling and Bargaining nature of the market as discussed above comes out in terms of many other factors related to the production process, and which are overlooked by Adam Smith in his definition. These factors attributed to production include the land rates or the rent value to the landlords, the depreciation value on all capital good used in the process, The cost of supplies made during production, The cost of raw materials and Economical factors such as the rate of inflation during the period of production. Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Marx related the labour time value in the production process to the final value of the exchange value articulated to the final product because they made their reference to the simplest form of production. These Economists failed to give a deeper evaluation to a large scale production process in which many production factors come into play (Milios, Dimoulis, & Economakis, 2018). These factors are in direct or indirect association to the production process and affect the cost of production subsequently. Socially necessary labour is the current labour effort required to produce a given output whereas socially average time is the given labour time necessary to give a given output. These are fields used to define the labour used in the production process. They involve the magnitude and time value of the labour used.

Q2.

Marx and Schumpeter showed that what really set of the difference and made firms stand out in promotion of capitalism is the firm’s ability to have access to better technology, better suppliers and better firm organisational plans. This ability, as pointed out by Marx and Schumpeter, strikes at the margins of the firm foundation directly and impacts the very lives of these firms (Phillimore, 2001). Marx explained that the idea of competition as an “external coercive law,” which imposes capital logic over the individual and the overall society, (Giulio, 2017). It can be expressed as the basic improvement of the production process to cut cost and increase profits on sales. This description points out that competition within firms in the capitalist Economy, is affected by a number of factors and the same factors are in direct affiliation with the single individuals and the general community. These parties are the main reason for the creation of reproduction classes within the economy and emergence of some resultant economic factors. Marx also suggests that the competition tendency of the firms may accrue to the natural nature of human beings to compete against each other (Phillimore, 2001). From this argument we deduce that the different managements in different firms within the economy are in constant assessment of the other and in formulation of strategies meant to gain an upper hand advantage to the other. Schumpeter on the other hand, argues with the theory model of “Creative Destruction”. He explains this as the tendency of the new businesses to replace the old one in the economic setting. This theory is held by the dynamic nature of the general economy. Dynamism of the economy leads to the continuous change of the rules applied in the business environment. Schumpeter’s capital argument was meant to portray the way the economy is structured, and the characteristics of the structure which resulted to a self-consumption nature of the economy leading to a continuous replacement of older business. The older businesses were forced to exit the economy due to the difficulty to cope with the strengths brought by the new businesses that have entered the economy carrying with-them new methods that are way more efficient.

Q3.

Ernest Mandel argues that the rate of profit in the monopoly sector is limited by and dependent on the production of surplus value in the competitive sector (Mandel, 1967). He explained the dynamics of crisis and uneven development in the concept of surplus profit in Marxist economic model. According to Mandel, inequalities, crises, wars, mass poverty, majority oppression, and perversion through fascism are not external disturbances, accidents, nor temporary interruptions but logical and natural expressions of the free market (Freeman, 1996). In his observation, Mandel suggested that capitalism is relatively unstable and dependent on surplus value in the free market economy. He observed this based on the movement of capital, labour, and the limits to equalization of different profit rates. The surplus value in question is based on the original Marx description of the surplus production in the economy expounding on the topic with some increments where he quantifies the ‘surplus’ as the general maximization of the labour output while maintaining the cost of labour maintenance and that of labour compensation constant. To ensure surplus production, Mandel shows how capitalist are involved in planned methods of prolonged working hours and wage cuts to ensure that the surplus is reached and realised (Mandel, 1967). Monopoly sector ensures there is always surplus production which maintains capital accumulation. Accumulating capital is a strategy carried out by the monopoly institution to enhance substantial growth that makes the institutions immune to failure from competitive forces.

Q4.

Guy Standing described the precariat as a neologism identification of an emerging social class consisting of people suffering directly from precarity. This social class of people are characterised with the lack of security in their material ownership and psychological well-being on the other hand, the “reserve army of labour” refers to a group of people in the society that are unemployed or their position of employment is lowly rated to the skills they carry (Grover & Piggott, 2005). A precariat is an individual or group of people in the job market whom employment mode or type is in anyway structured to be insecure (Standing, 2013). They include temporal employments and freelancers. It may also refer to the mismatch in occupational places compared to the skills possessed where the current occupation is in lower rating compared to the skills possessed. Insecurity in employment is the nature of an occupation to be seen as non-permanent and the occupants of this position are rendered to be jobless sooner or later in the future. These groups of people are in consistent worry of their employment being terminated or coming to the end date. This instils in them the tendency to prospect on the next employment opportunities and how they can access them leading to anxiety and stressful burdens on them. Insecure employment and underemployment status have greatly affected the general wellbeing of the people involved. This is both mentally and health wise. It is seen that with underemployment status the people involved happen to showcase a lot of dissatisfaction (Standing, 2013). Lack of contentment arises when one is working in a field not related to their profession or lowly rated to the set of skills at their disposal. Underemployment results such as low-income rates are a major cause of increased stress levels within the working groups (Standing, 2013). This is also evident with the class of people under the precariat jobs section. These two groups represent a mentally deprived group associated with day to day worry of termination and future expectations that are mostly unpredictable. The major reason for the introduction of insecure and under employment policies in the current corporates is to have flexibility in the labour market. Flexibility in the labour market ensures that there is always labour mobility for the corporate institutions readily available when required. It makes the market of labour work in service of the corporates preventing any struggle in labour acquiring and labour price setting.

Q6.

Labour shedding in one part of the economy means there are increased numbers of unemployed personnel in the economy. It is a situation experienced when a sector is undergoing internal difficulties that renders it unable to compensate the labour as before. When this happens the sector tends to cut off some of the employees leaving alone a number that can be effectively compensated by the sector. Labour shedding results to labour dumping in the labour market. When labour dumping occurs, there is a general increase in the number of unemployed people in the economy reducing the labour cost. Cost of labour at this point is affected negatively due to the increased number of people readily available for employment (Boeri and Keese, 1992). An increased supply of labour in the economy results to less choosy nature of the unemployed group to the jobs available. This means that people tend to refrain from being specific on the skills they possess with regard to job securing which results to people working in fields they are not necessarily skilled in for even lower wages. Therefore, when the is labour shedding in one part of the economy, the other parts gain the advantage of low cost of labour that adds up to increased profit levels in these economy parts. Mechanization in work places is a great way for lowering production cost with other production benefits (Kongolo, 2010). Adopting mechanized systems in businesses changes the general system of the business in question which results to lowering the number of employees needed in the business. The mechanized systems become the replacement for the employees working in the stations mechanized hence the firms cut off the employees replaced and with that firms cuts on the wages in the event of production mechanization. When the levels of unemployment rise in the economy it results to increased labour supply which does not match the demand of labour in place. A higher labour supply with regard to the labour demand results to lower prices on the labour value available and this is an advantage to the labour-intensive firms. These firms are able to access adequate labour at cheaper prices.

Q7.

Productivity levels in firms or organizations can be positively influenced by application of appropriate organizational structures in the institutions. The types of organizational structures adopted in a business can be vital to influencing the motivation amongst the colleagues. A well stipulated and simple-to-understand system should be put in place, which clearly shows the flow of activities within the institutions. Organizational structures adopted, defines the ability of the colleagues to be involved in effective and productive teamwork activities within the organization. It also supports effective supervision and other leadership roles supporting a well-defined workflow throughout the working period. Proper leadership is accrued to the set of skills possessed by the personnel put in the higher positions in the firms and organisations. For higher productivity the leadership in these areas should possess a morale oriented and captivating skills with which to encourage and motivate the entire workforce for maximization of their output (Soltanisehat, Alizadeh, & Mehregan, 2019). The motivating factor in leadership should also support teamwork within the workforce for a unified goal internally. Socially, leaders should be great team workers and support team working within their group too. Team working is a great tool to ensure the goals of the organisation are met. Synchronization of the entire team makes the focus remain clear to every employee, preventing deviation while promoting hardworking and determination. Organizational skills are also very critical to the success of the organization. Some of the necessary organizational skills include proper work delegation, time management skills, proper and effective communication skills and critical thinking with analytical organisation and formulation of ideas. Organisations can promote social attributes of the working team through involvement in team building functions such as retreats to help colleagues gain a good understanding of each other. These functions also serve the necessary function of helping the employees discover and reveal unknown skills and talents that may be beneficial to the entire organisation. Maintaining a healthy social interaction between employees promotes the ease to work together. Working together within colleagues maintains a smooth and productive workflow which is a great aspect to enable the organisation realise its vision and meet the goals set.

Q8.

Public goods are products or services that are available for use by all people in living and dependent to the products. These products possess the characteristics of non-rivalry and non-excludable. The non-rivalry nature of the public goods means that the goods are available in the exact working quantity in that the constant use by an individual does not reduce the product’s available quantity for the next user. The products are availed in their exact working quantity which is not subject to change upon usage by one or several individuals. Non-excludability on the other hand is the feature of the public good that prevents bias usage within individuals. All the users to this product are all equally entitled to the product usage. Therefore, no one is expected to be hindered to have access to this product. According to (Bramoullé & Kranton, 2007), the users of these products cannot be exempted to use them even when they are not able to compensate the same and the use by one person does not affect the use by another. Landmarks and facilitating infrastructure are products availed to the society by the government authorities. These products serve specific purposes in facilitating particular service within the whole population within their range of usage. The service offered by these products is highly expensive in that it makes it impossible for each individual to acquire the service themselves. With these characteristics, the products are clearly meant to be used by the entire population to become cost effective. The ownership and maintenance responsibility of these products is accrued to the government. The landmarks innovations and their facilitating infrastructure are a meant for public service in sustaining their specific service delivery to the population. They are very expensive for individual provision and maintenance, with that, the government pools the tax based capital as individual investment of every tax payer in acquiring these products. Due to the nature of every tax payer contribution, the products are publically owned making them usable by everyone without restriction from anyone. Any damage done on these products by individuals is a crime and can be charged in court making these products public goods.

References

Giulio, P., Competition: a Marxist view, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Volume 41, Issue 6, November 2017, Pages 1559–1585, https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/bex006Freeman, A. (1996). Ernest Mandel’s Contribution to Economic Dynamics. https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/64974/1/MPRA_paper_64974.pdf

Mandel, E. (1967). The labor theory of value and Monopoly Capitalism. International Socialist Review, 28(4), 29-42.

Kurz, H. D. (2010). Technical progress, capital accumulation and income distribution in classical economics: Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Marx. The European journal of the history of economic thought, 17(5), 1183-1222.

Milios, J., Dimoulis, D., & Economakis, G. (2018). Karl Marx and the classics: An essay on value, crises and the capitalist mode of production. Routledge.

Phillimore, J. (2001). Schumpeter, Schumacher and the greening of technology. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 13(1), 23-37.

Standing, G. (2013). Defining the precariat: A class in the making. Eurozine. https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/18276/1/Defining%20the%20precariat%20Eurozine%20Apr%202013.pdfBoeri, T., & Keese, M. (1992). From labour shortage to labour shedding: labour markets in Central and Eastern Europe. Communist Economies and Economic Transformation, 4(3), 373-394.

Kongolo, M. (2010). Job creation versus job shedding and the role of SMEs in economic development. African journal of business management, 4(11), 2288-2295.

Bramoullé, Y., & Kranton, R. (2007). Public goods in networks. Journal of Economic theory, 135(1), 478-494.

Classical Argument Outline

Introduction

General sentence about topic: There are many diseases that can be treated or even cured with organ transplants, but these donors need to be donated by willing donors.

Linking sentence: There is a high demand for organs to be donated, but disproportionately fewer available donors.

Thesis Statement: The sale of human organs should be illegal because it promotes human trafficking, black markets for organs, and it is also unethical.

Body Paragraph 1

Topic Sentence: Because of the high demand for human organs, legalizing the sale of the organs would encourage human trafficking.

Supporting Detail/Evidence: Many people who need organ transplants in developed countries travel to developing countries.

Supporting Detail/Evidence: The main victims of human trafficking are poor and vulnerable populations that cannot protect themselves from traffickers.

Supporting Detail/Evidence: Long wait times for getting an organ.

Concluding Sentence: Traffickers use various tactics to lure victims such as promises of employment and financial rewards.

Body Paragraph 2

Topic Sentence: The second reason why the sale of human organs should not be legal is that it encourages the creation of a black market for organs.

Supporting Detail/Evidence: Under laws that prohibit the sale of human organs, recipients have to rely on national transplant lists run by government organizations.

Supporting Detail/Evidence: in black markets, organs would go to the highest bidder.

Supporting Detail/Evidence: Faced with the prospect of high returns, organ dealers will have even more incentives to procure organs illegally

Concluding Sentence: Legalizing the sale of human organs would allow these dealers to procure organs and sell them for very high prices.

Body Paragraph 3

Topic Sentence: Crime rates and exploitation of vulnerable people is another reason why the sale of human organs should not be legal.

Supporting Detail/Evidence: Some organs such as the heart and lungs are in high demand but can only be donated by recently deceased individuals

Supporting Detail/Evidence: Additionally, many vulnerable people would fall victim to forced abductions so that their organs can be harvested.

Supporting Detail/Evidence: Corrupt brokers, hospitals and physicians would take advantage of such people and exploit them.

Concluding Sentence: Legalizing the sale of human organs thus paves the way for exploitation of vulnerable populations, and such situations should be avoided at all costs.

Body Paragraph 4 – Counterargument/Refutation

Topic Sentence: Those in support of legalizing the sale of human organs argue that it would save many lives.

Supporting Detail/Evidence: Many people in dire need or organs die every day because they cannot access the organs that they need.

Supporting Detail/Evidence: The process of becoming an organ donor may be daunting for potential donors.

Supporting Detail/Evidence: Legalizing the sale of human organs would be a great incentive for many donors as they would see that the process also benefits them

Concluding Sentence: If a person can safely donate their organs and live without them, then they might as well benefit from such a sale.

The Essay’s Conclusion (do not simply repeat the thesis statement)

After examining both sides of the argument, it is clear that the sale of human organs should remain illegal. Although financial incentives could increase the supply of valuable organs, the potential risks are far greater than the benefits and therefore, it should remain illegal. People should be encouraged to donate organs out of altruism rather than any financial benefits.

My Values in Counseling

Name:

Subject:

Task:

Date:

My Values in Counseling

Personally, it is unnecessary to expose ones values to his clients during the session. If the client is aware of the counselor’s values, then this counselor will have no control over the interpretation the client will have on his values. Exposing values of the counselor will result into random issues that may make the session unproductive. In Counseling, personal values are key elements in the development of an individual and society. When i help other people despite being open minded, i constantly run the risk of inflicting my values on the clients. It is impossible to listen to the client and avoid judging what they tell me.

Personal Values in counseling is a difficult ethical theory. Even the most careful and principled counselors can also be influenced unintentionally by their values. As counselors, imposing my values to clients is a deceitful scheme, and it jeopardizes with our professional objectives. Some people would disagree that objectivity is a false impression and that it is totally impractical.

Integrity is a key value for me and all the counselors. To me, this means I have to behave accordingly according to the moral principle. I need to know what I believe and practice within that system of belief. I am not supposed to do harm to my clients, and observe my boundary to all my clients.

The second significant value is freedom. Freedom helps me by driving me into performing certain actions. It helps me decide on what the next move to take. Freedom allows me to be creative and responsible for decisions I make. With these values, I am able to commit with the client making him responsible for his actions and its penalty.

Another value is neutrality. This helps my clients get a perceived control of their own self from the external environment. This implies that i should be neutral, and the client will feel comfortable believing that i am OK with any behavior. As a counselor, I remain neutral and avoid communicating any value orientation. This helps me appear ethically neutral and keen on the client’s values. In a situation where certain topics are raised such as bisexual, religion or lesbianism, am not supposed to position to avoid any kind feeling from the client to me.

In some of my counseling sessions, there is the behavior that occurs naturally, and it is known as counter-transference or counseling transference. Counter-tranference is where I might project my own past conflicting experiences to the client. Transference is where the client involuntarily redirects certain feelings to me after interacting with other people. This behavior is common, and it is damaging to the session. Following my experience with this situation, I am keen when it comes to my feelings, and I try to use counter transference to get productive results rather than harm my sessions with my clients.

One of my best values that I consider challenging is neutrality. I need to be neutral on some issues such as abortion, adultery, drug use, child abuse and many more. I am to pass no judgment and be neutral to make the client comfortable during the session. However, this may lead to serious risks, and I may be held responsible. If I do not exercise the session with care and something happens to the client, then I will be responsible for negligence, unless the client withheld some valuable information during the counseling session.

Personal Reflection on My Learning Experiences

Student’s name

Institution

Course

Tutor

Date

My VARK questionnaire results indicate that I prefer learning through different formats, graphs, diagrams, maps, interesting layouts, space, discussing, listening, questioning, talking, notes, handouts, text, practical exercises, print, experiences, examples, case studies, trial and error, things that are real, and so on. This results showed that I prefer multimodal strategies to effectively learn and understand any kind of material. I was also surprised that I chose knowledge as the thing that I liked most about learning and my other choices were not as much, even though it came in first. A lot of things about this questionnaire were interesting to me because it made me think a lot about the different ways I learn. I found out that I prefer an instructors approach, which means that he/she is helping and inspiring me to learn. Not only do they help us put what we have learned into practice, but they also teach us how we are supposed to be using our skills and knowledge.

The questionnaires information helps us improve our understanding of what we have learned in school and how we are learning it. Through this different learning styles, I was able to learn and understand the key concepts of the Federal Government course. I learnt through some of the examples and diagrams found in the course material. The class discussion helped me to learn more about the different key ideas and how they were connected. Overall, I think that I will continue to apply the learning styles I have learned through this questionnaire to my future courses and life. However, there are a few things that I was not so fond of in this course. One thing was the way we would have to read paragraphs from a textbook before we would understand what we were actually learning.

Through, my multiple learning preferences, I understood various concepts and procedures that are key to ensuring effective governance. My effective learning experience involved discussions, charts, diagrams, talking, listening, questioning, recalling, and summarizing in my learning group. My ineffective learning experience involved trying to read the textbook without understanding it (Shumba & Iipinge, 2019).

For me, studying is best when I can talk about and work through information with other students in a small group setting. However, I found that reading the textbook alone to be ineffective because I did not understand what was being said and had trouble recalling key concepts from it later on without someone else there to ask questions or help me as needed. Overall, these were my most effective and ineffective learning experiences for this course so far. My effective learning experience involved talking about a presentation in our learning group. My ineffective learning experience involved reading and trying to understand the textbook by myself in the library.

My learning experience in this course has been effective because I have been working within groups to discuss the material and board problems. I have learned a lot and had many effective learning experiences by doing so. I believe others can learn more efficiently with group discussions because they can hear other people’s views and opinions on topics, which helps them understand the material better (Hassanzadeh et al., 2019). This is something that I will continue to do as long as possible throughout my college career. I believe my learning experience in this course has been ineffective because I haven’t been able to fully realize when I’ve had a misunderstanding of the material yet, or when there is something that needs to be fixed.

References

Hassanzadeh, S., Moonaghi, H. K., Derakhshan, A., Hosseini, S. M., & Taghipour, A. (2019). Preferred learning styles among ophthalmology residents: An iranian sample. Journal of Ophthalmic & Vision Research, 14(4), 483.

Shumba, T. W., & Iipinge, S. N. (2019). Learning style preferences of undergraduate nursing students: A systematic review. Africa Journal of Nursing and Midwifery, 21(1), 1-25.

VARK Learning Style Questionnaire. (2022). Retrieved 24 April 2022, from https://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/?p=results

Class 3, Peer Response 1

Name

Institutional Affiliation

Conflict resolution should best be dealt with in a way that encourages teamwork. I agree with the author on this. Operational work is efficient when balanced with compliance regulations through the focus on a common goal by all parties, as the author has mentioned (Brown et al., 2011). This would employ an effective conflict resolution measure.

References

Brown, J., Lewis, L., Ellis, K., Stewart, M., Freeman, T. R., & Kasperski, M. J. (2011). Conflict on interprofessional primary health care teams–can it be resolved?. Journal of interprofessional care, 25(1), 4-10.