Culturally Inclusive Classrooms Essay Example for Free

Culturally Inclusive Classrooms Essay How to build culturally inclusive and resilient ELEMENTARY classrooms and what types of supports are in communities that can facilitate student efforts to overcome cultural gaps in the home and in the school (elementary/secondary school level) A culturally inclusive classroom may consist of extremely diverse ethnic composition of students. With new immigration, more and more students are entering school, with little or no knowledge of English and have diverse educational and cultural backgrounds. A recent study on 400 school children in California shows that only 4% of enrolled children come from a single racial group (Chang, 1993). This has resulted in making of classrooms that have students coming from various nationalities, languages, social and economic backgrounds. The growing diversity is not only a problem to the teachers who are not adequately equipped to handle them, but also to parents, who are not sure whether the child’s adaptation will help him or alienate him from his community. Efforts are made to give prominence to the learning of the children with diverse backgrounds. Anti-bias curricula, use of home language and culture of the child, is recommended by National Assessment for Education of Young children, to foster learning of English and basic skills. It aims to make the first school experience a positive one. The forum on the Future of Children and Families held a workshop in 1993 in order to frame a sketch, to assess the scope of adequacy of research in early education of culturally diverse children. It tried to assess the most important factors in the early childhood education of a diverse group of students. Efforts were made to understand the influence of culture on human development and emphasis was laid on examining differences within culture and outside culture. Claude Goldenberg warned against treatment of culture as ‘straitjacket that predetermines the learning experience that children benefit from’ ( Goldenberg . C. 1987). It was observed and accepted that exposure at home influenced the adaptation of the children to school norms and environment. The workshop structured three questions that came up as a result of in depth study. These were- †¢ What role was played by the culture and home experience in shaping learning opportunities? †¢ How the cultural and linguistic background of children affects the knowledge skills and expectations they bring with them? †¢ How should the nature of instruction vary with learning and motivation from various backgrounds? A child has to learn the rules of two environments home and school from his pre school days i. e. , age of 3-4 years. Children who face a language and culture thoroughly different at home and school face a lot of conflicts about behavior which might result in incompatibility. Researchers have found that inconsistency in home and school make learning difficult and adjustments uneasy. The children who do not have some insightful understanding of alphabets and numbers are likely to be left behind in class. Sharon, Griffin and her colleagues (Case and Griffin, 1990, Griffin, Case and Siegler 1992) noticed striking difference in the understanding of maths in low income groups. Claude Goldenberg his colleagues designed an intervention to improve the early literacy achievement of Spanish speaking children in Kindergarten. Timothy Shanahan and his colleagues designed the FLAME project to enable parents with limited expertise in Spanish to improve literacy achievements of their children. Both the projects on evaluation showed significant positive effects on the children’s literacy achievement, Goldenberg reported that control group which received structured instructions outperformed those with informal intervention. Research shows that guided learning at home can effect children’s adjustment in classrooms. Children who remain unaware of such guidance become incompatible in learning, may retreat from learning and even become disruptive. It also showed that there was no proof to suggest that children are constrained by culture in their learning abilities. Social Setting of learning constituted teaching, learning and performance. Research with Hawaiian families showed that ( Gallimore, Boggs and Jordan, 1974) children were accustomed to learning in peer interactions and indirect supervision from teachers exhibited a decline in disruptive and inattentive behavior. Classrooms fostering independent learning seemed alien to these students. Study made on Navajo children (Vogl, Jordan and Tharp , 1987) brought in the fact that peer group study was less prevalent in this culture. Effective classrooms brought out best performance when the children were allowed to work independently- as they did in their communities. Culture shapes conversations and paces response patterns. Pueblo Indian children give more elaborate responses and have spontaneous participation when given enough response time. (Winterton, 1977). Native Hawaiian students when given long waiting time are inhibited in participation. (White Tharp, 1988). Claude Goldenberg found that children learn in accustomed way of entering into a speech- guided by their culture. Latino –American students corroborated this experience, whose mothers use highly directive pattern of communication. Research evidence points to the fact that certain amount of compatibility between home and school culture is required to improve classroom activities. Goldenberg says â€Å"with the exception of same studies of cooperative learning and bilingual education, the experimental evidence linking cultural compatible instructions scholastic outcome can be very tenuous†. Constancy in school environment may not be always wanted. Yet some parents seek it so that the child is exposed to different educational experiences. For a child, the process of adjustment to varied environment at school and home may prove beneficial in future years of schooling and multicultural environment. Differences in the two environments may compliment and reinforce their learning. A culturally inclusive environment requires mutual respect, effective relationships, clear communication, explicit understandings about expectations and critical self –reflection. (Flinders University). In a culturally inclusive environment a student will be allowed to express his opinion freely, participate in classroom’s activities, experience stress free classes with no fear of unfair treatment or abuse. It also facilitates that teachers are approachable and open to concepts and ideas from different culture, allow diversity and promote a relaxed setting of learning. When teaching students from diverse background, a teacher needs to plan out his instruction with attention and care, with skills and strategies, specialized with an array of educational aids and materials. He has to keep in mind certain facts about his students, their experience in school, home and outside school and design the curriculum in accordance with their exposure. It should also be guided by the strengths and weaknesses of their experience. Teachers need to connect to the experience of his students. Reading about flowers, fruits, animals children are not familiar with in their culture or may not have been exposed to, makes it meaning less for the child. Readings to build vocabulary and comprehension are meaningful, when the child can connect to it. He also understands that his views are being respected, making him feel secure . Children are intelligent to sense if the support for diverse culture is superficial or genuine. Ysseldyke, Algozzine Thurlow point out that a teacher needs to ask himself if the curriculum is tailored to the interest of the student, are the study materials used in any way reflective of cultural or ethnic diversity. He also needs to be aware of the learning styles adapted by his students. The curriculum needs to be complete and accurate and have materials for all the students. It should avoid being symbolic and should not make the underrepresented group feel ‘the other’. Check should be made to see that the curriculum does not discriminate. Teaching materials used should be unbiased and un-oppressive (male centric, race centric etc). The content must explore a large angle of variety, be accurate and complete. Students need to be made aware about the issues of social justice. Lessons on racism, sexism, classism and other forms of oppression need to be facilitated and discussed in class, to enhance the awareness. In the assessment student feedback should be encouraged. Teachers should work with each other and critically appreciate each others work . Teachers could introduce various awareness activities in the class. Participants can introduce themselves and share their ethnicity, similarities and diversities with other members of the group Students may be encouraged to speak on their multi-cultural experiences . Some activities may include students sharing their identity through a poem. Sharing experiences of prejudices or discrimination as a sufferer or doer, personal experience of gender-bias may be discussed. Students can be encouraged to relate aspects of their personality, identity. Feeling of inclusion or exclusion in a learning process and multicultural awareness quiz etc may be conducted. A model developed by Australian Ministries of Education, aimed at education of educational equality of indigenous people, focused on three areas- community, school and classroom. Parents, Teachers, care givers, and previous school needed to be involved in a common understanding and adopting new approach to teaching of students from multicultural backgrounds. Strong partnerships between school and homemakers made the study supportive. School officials had the duty to look after and assist each student in the development of essential skills and attitude of the students to work independently, cooperatively and responsibly. The programs monitoring and assessment provided vital clues to the future direction of the curriculum. It stated the importance of assessment made as a joint effort between students, parents and community members who provide important input in the assessment. The data collected by various workshops and research points out to the fact that there is more room for study to be made on improvising culturally inclusive schools, classrooms. Very few teachers are trained and equipped to handle such diverse culture classes. Coordination between community and schools are wanted, to make a complete, homogeneous education to students from diverse cultural background. . References Case, R. , and S. Griffin 1990 Child cognitive development: The role of central conceptual structures in the development of scientific and social thought. In C-A. Hauert ed. , Developmental Psychology: Cognitive, Perceptuo-Motor and Psychological Perspectives. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier. Chang, H. 1993 Affirming Childrens Roots: Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Early Care and Education. San Francisco, Calif. : California Tomorrow. Gallimore, R. , J. W. Boggs, and C. Jordan 1974 Culture, Behavior, and Education: A Study of Hawaiian-Americans. Beverly Hills, Calif. : Sage. Goldenberg, C. 1987 Low-income Hispanic parents contributions to their first-grade childrens word-recognition skills. Anthropology and Education Quarterly 18:149-179. In press. Promoting early literacy development among Spanish-speaking children: Lessons from two studies. In E. Hiebert, ed. , Teaching Children to Read: The State of Early Interventions. Boston, Mass. : Allyn Bacon Griffin, S. , R. Case, and R. Siegler 1992 Rightstart: Providing the Central Conceptual Prerequisites for First Formal Learning of Arithmetic to Students at Risk for School Failure. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Education, Clark University. Howard Weiner, Adelphi University, Garden city, New York, Culturally Insulated Students : Assessing the Diversity Disposition Cap in a Predominantly White University with a New Instrument, the Culturally Responsive Educator Test. Journal of Authentic Learning, Volume 2, Number 1, September 2005. National Association for the Education of Young Children 1989 The Anti-bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children. Washington, D. C. : National Association for the Education of Young Children. National Association for Family Day Care 1990 Helping Children Love Themselves and Others: A Professional Handbook for Family Day Care Providers. Washington, D. C. : National Association for Family Day Care.

Networking :: Free Essay Writer

Networking For my independent study, I have created a network in my house. A network by definition are more than one computer that are linked together electronically via a protocol (common language) so the computers can communicate and share resources. This network improves the day-to-day life by adding value and usefulness to the computers. The processes and ideas that I have learned thru this experience can be applied directly into today’s rich electronic business environment. Identifying the needs of the user is the first step for building a well-designed Network. A professional installation was needed to maintain the aesthetics of the rental house. Most of the wires are run in the attic and then down plastic conduit attached to the wall. The conduit is run all the way to the wall boxes where the Ethernet ports are located. Every wire is clearly labeled and included in an easy to read schematic of the house. This way future tenants will have the ability to utilize the network. Next, every room needed to have access to the network. In order to minimize the overall use of wires, hubs were placed in strategic locations. An 8-port 10/100-megabit auto-sensing hub is located in the computer room and a 5 port 10-megabit in the sound room. There, needed to be docking stations, so laptop users or visiting computers could easily plug into the network and utilize the pre-existing monitor, keyboard, and mouse. These are the basic needs that have been put int o the design of the network. Each computer setup is unique with certain strengths and weaknesses. The network takes advantage of the strengths of each individual computer and makes them available to all users. A network essentially expands the capabilities of each computer by increasing functionality thru resource sharing. In the house, there are a total of four computers and two laptops. Processing speed and an abundance of ram is not essential for a server with such low traffic. Thus the most antiquated computer was elected for this function. Between all the computers, we have several extra pieces of hardware such as a zip drive, CDRW, DVD ROM, scanner, and multiple printers. Each piece of hardware is dispersed between the computers. There were several immediate efficiencies that occurred when the network went operational. The zip drive is located on the server while the CDRW is located on one of the individual workstations. Networking :: Free Essay Writer Networking For my independent study, I have created a network in my house. A network by definition are more than one computer that are linked together electronically via a protocol (common language) so the computers can communicate and share resources. This network improves the day-to-day life by adding value and usefulness to the computers. The processes and ideas that I have learned thru this experience can be applied directly into today’s rich electronic business environment. Identifying the needs of the user is the first step for building a well-designed Network. A professional installation was needed to maintain the aesthetics of the rental house. Most of the wires are run in the attic and then down plastic conduit attached to the wall. The conduit is run all the way to the wall boxes where the Ethernet ports are located. Every wire is clearly labeled and included in an easy to read schematic of the house. This way future tenants will have the ability to utilize the network. Next, every room needed to have access to the network. In order to minimize the overall use of wires, hubs were placed in strategic locations. An 8-port 10/100-megabit auto-sensing hub is located in the computer room and a 5 port 10-megabit in the sound room. There, needed to be docking stations, so laptop users or visiting computers could easily plug into the network and utilize the pre-existing monitor, keyboard, and mouse. These are the basic needs that have been put int o the design of the network. Each computer setup is unique with certain strengths and weaknesses. The network takes advantage of the strengths of each individual computer and makes them available to all users. A network essentially expands the capabilities of each computer by increasing functionality thru resource sharing. In the house, there are a total of four computers and two laptops. Processing speed and an abundance of ram is not essential for a server with such low traffic. Thus the most antiquated computer was elected for this function. Between all the computers, we have several extra pieces of hardware such as a zip drive, CDRW, DVD ROM, scanner, and multiple printers. Each piece of hardware is dispersed between the computers. There were several immediate efficiencies that occurred when the network went operational. The zip drive is located on the server while the CDRW is located on one of the individual workstations.

Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster

The Space Shuttle Columbia was the second space shuttle disaster and the first shuttle lost on land happened on February 1, 2003. In this mission, six American astronauts and Israel's first spaceman died when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated 200,000ft above Texas. They are David Brown, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Michael Anderson, William McCool and Ilan Ramon. Rick husband is the Columbia's commander was a US air force colonel recruited to the space program in 1994. He made his first flight in 1999; last week's was his second.William McCool is the Columbia pilot was on his first flight. A naval commander and test pilot, he was selected for the space program in April 1996, and trained at the Johnson space centre. Michael Anderson is one of only a handful of African-American astronauts, Anderson had logged 211 hours in space before the Columbia disaster. A USAF lieutenant-colonel, he joined Nasa in 1994. Kalpana Chawla is an experienced astronaut who made her f irst flight on STS-87 in 1997. David Brown was a military flight surgeon before joining the astronaut corps.Laurel Clark joined Nasa in the same year as Brown, and was trained as a space flight surgeon. Lastly is the Ilan Ramon, an Israeli air force colonel, Ramon was his country's first astronaut. He took part in the 1973 Yom Kippur war and the 1981 bombing raid that destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor. With the Columbia accident, not only has the nation lost a four-billion-dollar shuttle, seven outstanding astronauts and priceless experimental results, it has also lost confidence in manned space flight and space exploration. February 1, 2003 was a sunny day.It was the perfect day for the Columbia shuttle return to earth. Everyone at NASA was excited for their return because the shuttle would bring back a lot of useful information from the 16 days mission. No one suspected tragedy will happen. At around 9am, the shuttle lost contact with NASA. The mission controllers thought it was a temporary problem because of the shuttle reentry into the atmosphere and also the temperature sensors on the inboard and outboard elevons (A control surface on an airplane that combines the functions of an elevator and an aileron. on the left wing had stopped functioning minutes before. NASA start to recognize something unusual happened when several 911 calls were made by the residents in Texas, Arkansas and the Louisiana area. The space shuttle Columbia and her seven crewmembers were lost. Immediately after losing of the shuttle and the seven crewmembers, NASA stopped all shuttle operations at Kennedy Space Center. They collected all the remains piece of the Columbia shuttle and grid on the floor of the Reusable Launch Vehicle Hangar.The Columbia Reconstruction Project Team attempted to reconstruct the bottom of the orbiter as part of the investigation into the accident. The engineers found that a 20-inch piece of hardened insulation foam breaking off the main fuel tank and hitti ng the shuttle’s left wing during the launch on January 16th. They asked the top shuttle managers for outside agency assistance, but the request was denied. This is because the shuttle managers concluded that there was no safety concern due to the foam’s impact and decided to let the mission continue. Other possible causes were pilot mistake and space debris.After investigations continued in the next few weeks, some molten aluminum debris from the shuttle’s wing structure, as well as molten steel debris, had been found. When the engineers eliminated the other possibilities, they began to focus on the foam from the external tank only. When the shuttle reenters the atmosphere, the temperature on its surface can reach nearly 1649oC. So the Thermal Protection System (Various materials applied to the outer structure protect the orbiter from excessive heat) on the shuttle is critical. There are four different materials in the space shuttles Thermal Protection System ( TPS).There are high-temperature reusable surface insulation (HRSI) , low-temperature reusable surface insulation (LRSI), felt reusable surface insulation(FRSI), and reinforced carbon-carbon composite (RCC). The HRSI cover the high surface temperature reaches between 649 and 1260oC. The LRSI cover the low surface temperature reaches between 371 and 649oC. For another 2 materials are used in small amounts. Due to the temperature during reentry exceeds 1260oC at the nose cap, chin panel, forward external tank, and wing leading edge panels and T-seals, the RCC was break down.For reuse purpose and to prevent oxidation, the outer layer of the RCC is converted into silicon carbide in a furnace filled with argon with a temperature cycle up to 1649oC. The main reason of the shuttle to break down is because the foam from the bipod of the external tank was shed, and struck the shuttle’s left wing during the launch. It had damaged the wing’s leading edge RCC structures which allow ing reentry plasma to penetrate and disintegrate the underlying aluminum, damaging the wing’s structure.The foam of the bipod ramp is BX-250, polyurethane foam applied with CCF-11 which is used to cover outside of the tank to prevent ice and frost on the surface. The foam is to reduce the weight so it made by light material. The engineers couldn’t believe that such a light material could damage the wing of the shuttle. Thus, some research had done by the Southwest Research institute. They used a compressed air gun to fire a foam block of similar size and mass to that which struck Columbia and at same estimated speed.To represent the leading edge of Columbia's left wing, RCC panels from Enterprise and from NASA stock, along with fiberglass mock-up panels, were mounted to a simulating structural metal frame. In the final round of testing, a block fired at the side of an RCC panel created a hole 41 by 42. 5 centimeters (16 by 17 in) in the protective RCC panel. The tests clearly show that the foam could cause visible crack on the tested RCC panels. These cracks could lead the shuttle breakup during reentry. The final report of the Columbia Accident Investigation was released on August 26th, 2003.It concluded that this tragedy was caused by technical and organizational failures. The foam problem of the bipod area has existed for years, and NASA engineers have looked at a variety of ways to correct it. The report indicated that the space shuttle should not have been launched with this problem extant. The report further proposed that, although the shuttle had always returned to earth safely after the foam hit the wing during previous shuttle flights, the managers at NASA should not have rejected the engineers' requests to make sure Columbia's wing was not damaged this time.Finally, it suggested that NASA should have had a backup plan for fixing the shuttle in space and insuring the crew's safety if they found out the wing was badly damaged. On 26th Jul y 2005, a shuttle discovery was launched. NASA had formed an independent Return to Flight (RTF) panel to monitor its preparations. There are 7 out of the 26 RTF panel members issued a minority report prior to the launch. They questioning if Columbia’s lessons had been learned and also expressing concerns about NASA’s efforts.During launch, a large piece of foam separated from the external fuel tank, but fortunately did not strike the shuttle, which landed safely 14 days later. The shuttle fleet was once again grounded, pending resolution of the problem with the external fuel tank insulating foam. Reference: Columbia space shuttle disaster 2003. World news. http://www. guardian. co. uk/gall/0,,888045,00. html Space shuttles thermal protection system (TPS). US Centennial of Flight Commission. http://www. centennialofflight. ov/essay/Evolution_of_Technology/TPS/Tech41G2. htm Final report of Columbia Disaster. Columbia Accident Investigation Board http://caib. nasa. gov/ N ASA’s Space Shuttle Program: The Columbia Tragedy, the Discovery Mission, and the Future of the Shuttle. Marcia S. Smith Resources, Science, and Industry Division. Updated by January 4, 2006. fas. org/sgp/crs/space/RS21408. pdf Lessons Learned from the Columbia Disaster. Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS). www. aiche. org/uploadedFiles/CCPS/†¦ /Presentation_Rev_newv4. ppt

Porter Five Forces Analysis for Siemens AG Free Essay Example, 3250 words

It is evidently clear from the discussion that in the industrial electrical equipment industry, buyers are generally commercial users, engineering companies, and governments of different countries. Products are highly technical in nature and specialized knowledge is required in order to evaluate purchased items. Generally, buyers need to sign the contract with companies in order to purchase equipment. Bargaining power of buyer has been reduced by three factors which are, 1- an absence of electrical equipment sellers who can meet a specialized need of buyers, 2- high switching cost and 3- a need of buyers to maintain the relationship with sellers throughout the project lifecycle for implementation of technical equipment. Large electrical equipment companies buy electronic parts and raw materials from the variety of suppliers situated in different geographic locations. Due to the presence of multi-channel sourcing model and abundance of sourcing partners, companies do not rely on any particular supplier. On the other hand, many MNE electronic and engineering companies have their own production facilities to produce technical components that can be used in manufacturing complex electrical systems. Therefore, these MNE electronic and engineering companies have little dependency on suppliers. We will write a custom essay sample on Porter Five Forces Analysis for Siemens AG or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page Within last 10 years, many small level companies and entrepreneurs have established the market for green technologies that can be classified as the potential substitute for electrical equipment being offered by existing companies.