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Who remembers… everything?
You know you’ve been in that situation before- scratching your head, wondering where you’ve put your car keys. Or clicking on folder after folder on your computer, knowing that you just left that document in an “easy-to-find” directory. Such memory lapses are something that everyone has experienced, and would not come as a surprise to many. But for some, memory lapses are rare events, if not completely foreign to them.
Eidetic, or photographic, memory describes a type of recall where an individual is able to describe with almost superhuman precision, extremely accurate details concerning events, people, places, or things that he or she has witnessed in their lifetime. This capacity to summon memories with computer-like precision has been suggested to be a direct consequence of re-wiring of the brain in individuals with autism, or as a compensatory response in individuals with savantism. In fact, in a subset of the latter, termed prodigious savants, eidetic memory seems to occur rather frequently.
While many reports of individuals possessing photographic memory has surfaced, the majority of these superior memory claims have ultimately been revealed as examples of highly skilled mnemonists rather than bona fide individuals with eidetic memory capabilities. However, the degree to which some people have trained their ability to memorize patterns or sequences is no less amazing, and organized competitions in which trained mnemonists memorize ad hoc information have demonstrated the extent to which human recall can be honed. In the World Memory Championships, for example, a series of ten different memory challenges are presented to assess different aspects of information gathering, retention, and recall.
A recently published neuroscience article describes a form of hyperthymesia, called Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) identified in under a dozen individuals that refers to the rare human ability to accurately recall personal events throughout the majority of, if not their entire life. An important finding from this study was that upon structural magnetic resonance imaging of the brains of these gifted individuals, researchers were able to consistently identify nine neuroanatomical structures significantly different from the brains of participants with normal memory abilities. Though it was noted that many of the regions identified in this study were implicated in other neuroscientific examinations of autobiographical memory, whether or not these differences in brain structure were the cause or the effect of HSAM could not be concluded. However, it was suggested that perhaps these “different” regions were being used more efficiently in individuals with HSAM.
The scope of what the human brain is capable of remains astounding, and what we consider superhuman or paranormal abilities may simply be tantalizing hints of our full potential as a species. Continued and subsequent scientific research into these phenomena will uncover these mysteries, as it is not a question of “if”, but “when”. Perhaps, as individuals learn to recognize extraordinary talents in themselves and/or others, they will be key in helping to unravel the intriguing and ongoing mysteries of our perceived human limitations. | https://popgeeks.com/who-remembers-everything/ |
The human brain contains an estimated 100 trillion synapses. There doesn’t appear to be a finer level of structure to the neural cells, so this represents the maximum number of memory elements that a brain can hold. Assume for a moment that each synapse can hold a single bit; then the brain’s capacity would be 100 trillion bits, or about 12.5 terabytes. There may be some argument that there is actually a distribution of brain function, or redundancy of data storage, which would reduce the memory capacity of the brain. On the other hand, one might argue that synapses may not be binary and hence could hold somewhat more information. So it seems that 12.5 TB is a fairly good and conservative estimate.
It has also been estimated (see “On the Information Processing Capabilities of the Brain: Shifting the Paradigm” by Simon Berkovich) that, in a human lifetime, the brain processes 3 million times that much data. This all makes sense if we assume that most (99.99997%) of our memory data is discarded over time, due to lack of need.
But then, how would we explain the exceptional capabilities of autistic savants, or people with hyperthymesia, or eidetic memory (total recall). It would have to be such that the memories that these individuals retrieve can not all be stored in the brain at the same time. In other words, memories, or the record of our experiences, are not solely stored in the brain. Some may be, such as those most recently used, or frequently needed.
Those who are trained in Computer Science will recognize the similarities between these characteristics and the idea of a cache memory, a high speed storage device that stores the most recently used, or frequently needed, data for quick access.
After all, there is no real proof that all memories are stored in the brain. There is only research that shows that some memories are stored in the brain and can be triggered by electrically stimulating certain portions of the cerebral cortex. By the argument above, I would say that experimental evidence and logic is on the side of non-local memory storage.
In a similar manner, while there is zero evidence that consciousness is an artifact of brain function, Dr. van Lommel has shown that there is extremely strong evidence that consciousness is not a result of brain activity. It is enabled by the brain, but not seated there.
These two arguments – the non-local seat of consciousness and the non-local seat of memories are congruent and therefore all the more compelling for the case that our bodies are simply avatars.
of Reality”. Do you care if I reallywork with a lot of of your personal ideas? | https://blog.theuniversesolved.com/2012/07/18/my-body-the-avatar/ |
What is photo reflexive memory?
What is photo reflexive memory?
Eidetic memory (/aɪˈdɛtɪk/ eye-DET-ik; more commonly called photographic memory or total recall) is the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision for a brief period after seeing it only once, and without using a mnemonic device.
What is the difference between photogenic and eidetic memory?
Eidetic memory is the ability to recall an image for a brief period of time with high precision while photographic memory is the ability to recall an image for a much longer period with high precision. So, this is the key difference between eidetic memory and photographic memory.
What do you call a photogenic memory?
In the scientific literature, the term eidetic imagery comes closest to what is popularly called photographic memory. The most common way to identify eidetikers (as people with eidetic imagery are often called) is by the Picture Elicitation Method.
Is photo reflexive memory real?
Photographic memory is the ability to recall a past scene in detail with great accuracy – just like a photograph. Although many people claim that they have it, we still don’t have proof that it actually exists.
How do you tell if a child has a photographic memory?
Signs Of A Gifted Child #3: Has What Appears To Be A Photographic Memory. The gifted child absorbs and retains information that most people don’t. It’s not unusual for her to visit a museum and then return home and draw a complete diagram of something she saw there.
How do you describe someone with good memory?
Hyperthymesia is also known as highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM). According to a 2017 study , people with hyperthymesia can accurately and readily recall numerous details about events that have occurred in their life.
Who has an eidetic memory?
Leonardo da Vinci is said to have possessed photographic memory. Swami Vivekananda is believed to have eidetic memory as he could memorize a book just by going through it for a single time. The mathematician John von Neumann was able to memorize a column of the phone book at a single glance.
What type of memory do geniuses have?
Savant syndrome is elaborate abilities (including memory) in specialized areas such as a hobby or event, or a certain type of information. One of the most well-known cases of savant memory is Kim Peek, the man on which the movie Rain Man was based. | https://www.andymatthewsphotography.com/what-is-photo-reflexive-memory/ |
Psychological Science, ; DOI: Cooper, Elizabeth A. The surprising event needs to be intense enough in order to significantly trigger the person's emotional reaction.
Instead, that memory was the result of an incredibly complex constructive power -- one that each of us possesses -- that reassembled disparate memory impressions from a web-like pattern of cells scattered throughout the brain.
Abilities[ edit ] Individuals with hyperthymesia can recall much of their lives in near perfect detail, as well as public events that hold some personal significance to them.
The more you know about your memory, the better you'll understand how you can improve it. First, half of the participants took a practice memory test.
Cases of hyperthymesia differ from related cases of savant memory in that savants have an extraordinary memory for specific hobbies, and events of a narrow basis, whereas cases of confirmed hyperthymesia show surprisingly detailed memory for specific and general events.
By being encouraged to remember the achievements and passions of our younger selves, we can hang on to the sense of who we are. In the game, one person quietly whispers a message to the person beside them, who then passes it on to the next person in line, and so on. | https://coqekafahybalen.oberonlife.com/memories-of-people300065571gz.html |
On average, memory capacity is significantly higher in populations of 50–60 year olds than in populations of 80 year olds. We define SuperAgers as individuals 80 or older whose episodic memory capacity is at least as good as that of cognitively average individuals in their 50s and 60s. SuperAgers therefore have memory capacity that is superior for age. Previous work showed that SuperAgers have greater cortical volumes and greater resistance to age-related cortical atrophy than “cognitively average” individuals of the same age. Here we report on the cognitive, personality, and neuropathologic characteristics of the first 10 autopsy cases in the Northwestern SuperAging Program. During the follow-up period, seven SuperAgers maintained episodic memory performance within or above the average range for 50–65 year-old norms and all 10 SuperAgers maintained episodic memory scores within normal limits for their own age. Extraversion scores tended to be high on the NEO-PI-R measure of personality. The 10 autopsy specimens showed variable findings within the spectrum of Alzheimer pathology. The hippocampus and entorhinal cortex contained neurofibrillary degeneration mostly in the Braak II–III stages. However, even these limbic areas contained many healthy appearing neurons and the neocortex was generally free of neurofibrillary degeneration. In contrast, neocortical areas in at least five of the cases contained moderate to high densities of neuritic plaques. These findings need to be placed in context by comparing them to the neuropathology of cognitively average individuals of the same age. Future research on SuperAgers is likely to offer insights into factors that either prevent the emergence of involutional changes in the brain or that makes cognitive function more resistant to their consequences. | https://www.scholars.northwestern.edu/en/publications/cognitive-trajectories-and-spectrum-of-neuropathology-in-superage |
Associative memory storage remains one of the most appealing features of human cognition, enabling complex functions in the hippocampus like efficient memory retrieval and information routing (Levy and Steward, 1979; Stella and Treves, 2011). Unsurprisingly, associative memory storage has also been an important goal of modern neural networks, and low-latency models like Hopfield networks have traditionally been effective solutions to this problem.
Described by Little (1974) and later popularized by Hopfield (1982)
, (Little-)Hopfield networks are a form of recurrent neural networks which consist offully-connected McCulloch-Pitts neurons. In addition to this topology, Hopfield networks are typically designed with the constraint that no neuron has a connection with itself and that all connections are symmetric. They have the ability to store binary patterns of the form , and are commonly learned according to the standard Hebb rule, formalized as a sum-over-outer-products. These patterns are then recalled by probing the network with a possibly noisy version of the desired pattern and allowing the network to relax into a low energy state according to its attractor dynamics (Aiyer et al., 1990; Nasrabadi and Choo, 1992; Storkey and Valabregue, 1999).
A common question asked of these networks is their capacity — how many patterns can a -neuron Hopfield network reliably store? Increasing the number of learned patterns introduces additional terms called crosstalk (MacGregor and Gerstein, 1991), which can be intuitively understood as the influence of stored patterns on the network response to a desired pattern. The accumulation of these crosstalk terms results in higher order instabilities in the stored patterns, as they produce spurious states as undesirable fixed points in the -dimensional attractor space (Wu et al., 2012). We explore the mechanics of this behavior in Section 4.1, which enables our effective capacity estimation for the Hopfield network.
Here we define this term, capacity, as the maximum number of stored patterns which can be perfectly recalled when probed with the desired pattern. We consider alternate definitions and their relation to ours in Section 2. Nevertheless, mathematically rigorous analyses have been conducted on this question using a compatible definition of capacity, producing coarse estimates like to more precise expressions like (Amit et al., 1985; McEliece et al., 1987). Unfortunately, these static estimates fair poorly on a number of relevant metrics like accuracy and efficiency, as we observe in Section 5.
Later analyses by Löwe have extended prior work by incorporating the possibility for bias (Löwe, 1999) or correlation (Löwe, 1998) in the stored patterns. Their theoretical results propose a reduction in memory capacity as either bias or correlation diverge from the ideal i.i.d. random pattern case, and experimental simulations testing these hypotheses support their claims (Wilson and Osborne, 1998).
Since these static capacity models do little in the way of accounting for naturally varying patterns, Hopfield networks using a standard Hebb learning rule are rarely effective in practice. Designers hoping to perfectly recall all stored patterns are then forced to drastically underestimate the capacity for the worst-case scenario, as we depict in Figure 1 above. This is of particular importance in VLSI design, as hardware designers intending to use Hopfield networks as a form of content-addressable memory use an impractically large amount of memory to store the network’s weight matrix relative to the network’s information capacity (Draghici, 2000; Theocharides et al., 2004; Verleysen et al., 1989).
In place of the standard static estimates for memory capacity defined in Section 2, we present a novel dynamic technique for monitoring the capacity of a Hopfield network in real time. Our estimation model is a function of both the current state of the network, as represented by the network’s weight matrix, and the incident pattern to be stored. By testing the current network’s response to a new pattern, we calculate a fraction of the total crosstalk in our system, allowing us to observe the network’s distance to its capacity. This behavior is more quantitatively analyzed in Section 4.2. We then compare our results on the same metrics used to analyze static estimates and note an increase from an average of 53% accuracy to an average of 94% accuracy using our dynamic capacity model. Moreover, we observe a doubling of memory efficiency when compared to the static models that assume worst-case capacity estimates.
2 Related work
Hopfield and other early researchers like Amit, Gutfreund and Sompolinsky considered a notion of capacity defined for an -neuron Hopfield network by a critical value , such that for , nearly all patterns are memorized, and for , nearly all patterns are forgotten (Hopfield, 1982). By comparing Hopfield networks to physical spin-glass models and assuming i.i.d. random patterns, they conclude with a calculation of and therefore represents the capacity of a Hopfield network (Amit et al., 1985). We find this definition of capacity too coarse for ensuring minimal memory loss and thus is not considered any further in this work.
The question of capacity was brought up again by McEliece, Posner, Rodemich and Venkatesh with the more precise definition that capacity is the maximum number of i.i.d. random patterns which can be stored and perfectly recalled. They extend their analysis to considering initial probes with patterns at a distance of Hamming distance away from one of the patterns, where . Their exact derivation is not useful here but can be found in (McEliece et al., 1987). Their final expression takes the following form:
|(1)|
Löwe broke from the assumption of i.i.d. random patterns to consider the effect of pattern bias (Löwe, 1999) or correlation (Löwe, 1998) on the capacity. He defined a bias for the -th value of the -th pattern by
. He modeled both semantic and spatial correlations as homogeneous Markov chains, defining the correlationas . For both cases, biased and correlated, Löwe expresses the capacity as , where is defined based on the bias or correlation of the stored patterns.
|(2)|
|(3)|
The definition of capacity employed in this paper is the maximum number of stored patterns that a Hopfield network can retrieve when probed with the desired pattern. This definition is compatible with the definitions used by McEliece et. al. and by Löwe, and are used as baselines to which we compare our dynamic estimation model in Section 5. For the static estimate by McEliece et. al., our definitions are equivalent to the case where and thus we use the expression . For the estimate by Löwe, we recognize his lower bound for the parameter and thus we use both its lower bound for the appropriate value of or .
3 Random pattern generation
Since we examine the behavior of Hopfield networks on artificial data, it is important to precisely define how we generate our test patterns. Each of the patterns is represented by an
-dimensional column vector, where each element is chosen from the set . In the i.i.d. case, each element is chosen independently of all other elements for and
, and with equal probability for eitheror .
In order to produce data with bias and/or correlation, we rely on techniques introduced by Löwe (Löwe, 1999). We introduce bias by setting the probability that a particular element is either or , formalized as and thus . In order to introduce correlation, we define a parameter and consider semantic correlations between successive patterns as Markov chains. We then combine these two parameters based on a method described by Clopath et al. (2012). Explicitly, we define the probabilities as follows:
|(4)|
|(5)|
|(6)|
|(7)|
This approach allows us to consider the input patterns taking the form of independent two-state Markov chains. We can then reason about the correlation between successive patterns and quantify the crosstalk in the Hopfield network as a function of the parameters and .
3.1 Pattern statistics
Each two-state chain can be represented by a transition matrix where elements contain the probability of moving from state to state in one step.
|(8)|
|(9)|
|(10)|
We can extend this transition matrix to steps as
. Recognizing the eigenvalues ofas 1 and , we can calculate
|(11)|
A useful quantity in our later analysis of crosstalk in Section 4.1 is the correlation between two stored patterns separated by steps, quantified as . As a result, we are interested in describing as well as the expected value . Writing as a function of , , allows us to simplify the expression for the expected value to . We calculate this function as follows:
|(12)|
We can gain a more intuitive understanding of these equations by evaluating their order for increasing values of . This corresponds to thinking about the correlation between two patterns separated by units of time. Since these correlations are not dependent on our bias , we leave a constant and analyze the behavior as a function of our correlation .
It becomes evident then that for , the expected value of the term decreases for larger distances . This behavior fits our understanding of the Markov property where the future state is dependent on the current state, and thus for increasing separations in time the successive patterns grow decreasingly correlated.
4 Dynamic capacity estimation model
As we will analyze in this section, the fundamental source of memory loss in Hopfield networks arises from an accumulation of crosstalk. Since crosstalk is dependent on the patterns being stored, which can vary drastically in bias and correlation, traditional static approaches to estimating capacity are often inaccurate at predicting the capacity of the network for any particular trial. Taking a dynamic approach to measuring the crosstalk in real time enables us to adapt our estimate of the network’s capacity to the patterns being stored and halt its operation before stored memories are lost.
4.1 Quantitative analysis of crosstalk
Consider an -neuron Hopfield network with synapses stored in an weight matrix . We plan to store patterns of length as for , and represent the network after storing the -th pattern as . Initially, . After the first pattern is stored, we can write the weight matrix as , and after patterns, we write the matrix as:
|(13)|
Suppose we now attempted to recall all patterns. We calculate their activation and note that, at least to first order recurrence in the network, .
We notice that along with the desired component we also recover crosstalk terms which correspond to the contribution of other memories on . We also notice that the crosstalk varies based on the neuron , and so we define corresponding to the total crosstalk affecting the -th pattern at neuron .
|(14)|
Modeling our input data as a Markov chain allowed us to express the expected value of the term as . We can treat
as a random variable and express its expected value as
|(15)|
Knowing that the function decreases for increasing values of based on the correlation of the patterns allows us to use future measurements of and estimate the distribution of crosstalk across all of its terms, as we will show in Section 4.2.
Another notable feature of crosstalk is that it comes in two variants: constructive and destructive. Since the recovered bit depends on the sign of , it is possible that is the same sign as the desired bit, and thus we get that . Thus we are only concerned with the case when . When this occurs, the -th neuron in the network returns the incorrect bit for the pattern and causes the overall network to deviate from its trajectory towards the desired fixed point in and instead settle in an incorrect low energy state.
4.2 Our approach
In order to monitor a Hopfield network’s capacity, suppose we maintain a matrix which contains the destructive crosstalk for the Hopfield network, where we define the elements as . Consider the result of storing an pattern as . When attempting to recover this new pattern through the networks activation to , we calculate . Using this notation, we see the crosstalk for the pattern in all neurons already bundled together as . Thus we can use the following iterative approach to calculate exactly the destructive crosstalk associated with each new pattern , appending a column to our matrix in order to keep track of the new crosstalk:
|(16)|
However, this calculation alone is not sufficient for monitoring the crosstalk for all patterns, as adding a pattern to the network also introduces crosstalk for the previously stored patterns. After storing the pattern, we must update the crosstalk for all patterns at all neurons with the following quantities.
We can note that the sum of these crosstalk terms becomes . Thus the new quantity we have calculated as the crosstalk for pattern is also the total crosstalk to be distributed across the other patterns.
Using our knowledge of the pattern’s bias and correlation , we know the expected distribution of for all from the calculated quantity . We know that our function , which describes the expected correlation between two patterns separated by units in time, scales like . As a result, we can understand the individual crosstalk terms as follows, though of course the final expressions which our model uses are functions of and .
Updating our destructive crosstalk matrix in this way, written explicitly in Figure 1(b), allows us to iteratively and continuously update the crosstalk for each memory at each neuron. Checking if the network is at capacity thus becomes a simple question of checking if for any and , and allows us operate alongside a Hopfield network as in Figure 1(a) and halt the network before it has exceeded its capacity.
5 Experiment
5.1 Correctness of our random pattern generator
To verify our pattern generator, we consider bias as and correlation as . We measure the bias of the generated patterns from the mean of each produced pattern, and the correlation from the mean covariance between successive patterns. We note unexpected deviations for highly biased and highly correlated patterns, and thus do not test our model in this regime.
5.2 Accuracy on random unbiased, uncorrelated data
To simulate the behavior of our model, we fix our values for network size , pattern bias , and correlation . We then generate random patterns according to the desired bias and correlation, and begin the process of simulating our estimator. Each incident pattern is fed through our estimator and stored in the network as is outlined in Section 4.2. We complete each trial once the estimator flags the capacity and the network crosses its true capacity, allowing us to compare our model’s estimate.
We first look to analyze the behavior of our model on the ideal case of unbiased and uncorrelated data, using and . This case is also applicable for the case when the biased pattern case when we use the zero-centering learning rule. We run 20 trials at neuron counts of , , , , and , corresponding to network sizes ranging from to synapses. We quantify the accuracy of our estimate as the ratio of our estimate to the true capacity , and compare our results on this metric to those from the static model proposed by McEliece et. al. as .
Results
We can immediately recognize the approximately improvement in capacity estimate from the static model to our proposed dynamic model in Table 1 above. Interestingly, the model proposed by McEliece et. al. does not seem to degrade for larger values of , suggesting the general expression is likely a good approximation for a Hopfield network’s capacity. Nevertheless, tuning this expression for different values of would not take into account natural variations in bias and correlation, and thus is not a practical solution for accurately predicting the network’s capacity. Instead, our dynamic model showed the most promising results, maintaining an accuracy between about across all tested network sizes.
5.3 Efficiency on biased or correlated data
Allowing for variance in the bias or correlation of our stored patterns introduces a notion of the worst-case capacity estimate. To quantify the reduction in memory efficiency when utilizing the worst-case capacity estimate, we define efficiency as the ratio between the estimated capacityto the number of synapses .
|(17)|
This metric is analogous to the ratio of the amount of information stored to the number of bits needed to store the information, and the worst-case capacity estimate where corresponds to a reduction in efficiency.
We test our dynamic model in several non-ideal regimes corresponding variable levels of bias and correlation. Specifically, we test our model on values of and , and on and . We compare our efficiency both to the maximum efficiency, , and to Löwe’s static capacity model . We choose for the static model based on the worst case value of bias or correlation, and . For brevity we report a sampling of these tests for a network size of , though they are representative across our previously examined range of . For patterns with high bias and correlation, we are unable to faithfully compare our model’s efficiency to the static model’s efficiency because the static model vastly overestimates the memory capacity, leading to a rapid destruction of all previously stored patterns and an effective efficiency of 0%.
Results
It is clear from our results in Table 2
that our dynamic model has a higher efficiency than the static model. Moreover, our model’s efficiency is within one standard deviation of the maximum efficiency, which fully utilizes the capacity of the Hopfield network. More precisely, we report an average of two-fold improvement on the efficiency as compared to the static model.
6 Discussion
In this work, we have presented a new model for dynamically recognizing the memory capacity of Hopfield networks. Our model runs alongside a learning Hopfield network and dynamically concludes at an accurate capacity estimate that minimizes memory loss and maximizes efficiency. Moreover, our model solves this problem for increasingly large networks and is moderately robust to variations in bias and correlation. We recognize a computational and memory tradeoff when using our model, as it has complexity from calculating and requires memory to store crosstalk for all patterns in each neuron. However, these costs are on the same order as the process for storing and recalling a pattern and the memory needed to store the weight matrix.
Our dynamic model enables enormous improvements on prior static methods by increasing the effective capacity of an neuron Hopfield network while ensuring near-perfect recall of all stored patterns. It also opens up possibilities for system-level improvements and algorithms such as reducing the computational overhead by reusing the pattern-recall pathway for calculating the new crosstalk, and selectively accepting or rejecting patterns based on their impact on the network’s crosstalk. We feel these are powerful and interesting applications of our dynamic capacity estimation model. Our model can have significant implications for modern designers creating low-power, online learning systems, and repositions Hopfield networks as practical and efficient forms of associative memory.
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“All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain,” improvised Rutger Hauer, in the poetic ending of the classic cult film Bladerunner. The famous quote summarizes the philosophic dilemma that our memories, often fleeting and undependable, are loosely constructed to constantly amend our own identities. From the more recent Facebook timelines to photographs, diaries and schedule planners, a myriad of devices have been created to piece together remnants of our past.
For artist and MIT Graduate, Nima Veiseh, his past is much less fleeting than the ordinary person’s. Veiseh has a neurological condition called hyperthymesia, or Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, providing him—as one of only 50 people in the world known to have this condition—with the ability not just to remember every day of his life in stunning detail, but to accurately pinpoint each detail by date.
“As far as I know we are not entirely sure what causes it,” Veiseh told the Observer. “They’ve done MRI scans and a lot of tests trying to pinpoint where in the brain there might be a relationship. What we do know is each one of us with this type of autobiographical memory has different triggers. For some it might be a divorce, the death of a family member, the first day of school. For me it was the day I met my first girlfriend.” Since that day, on December 15, 2000, Veiseh can retrieve personal details from every day after with near-perfect accuracy.
With hyperthymesia, these detailed, daily memories are stored as long-term memories. In the brain, short-term memories require quick and simple chemical changes to the synapse in order to maximize efficiency, while developing long-term memories demand neurons create new proteins and expand into the brain’s synapses to facilitate neurotransmitter traffic. According to research conducted by Columbia University neuroscientist, Eric Kandel, hyperthymesia appears to enable Veiseh to undergo this process involuntarily and automatically.
Researchers have grappled with explaining the genesis of hyperthymesia since the condition was first studied and diagnosed in the early 2000s, but no conclusive explanation settled upon yet. Initial hypotheses suggested the condition was linked to autism, but has been proven to be unfounded. The first studied case was published in 2006 by researchers at the University of California, who noted that the hyperthymesia case they studied in Jill Smith, “differs from other cases of superior memory who use practiced mnemonics to remember vast amounts of personally irrelevant information,” adding, “if given a date, she can tell you what she was doing and what day of the week it fell on.”
Although subjects diagnosed with hyperthymesia are able to recall personal life events in extraordinary detail, their ability to memorize impersonal information—such as lists, words, or numbers—are no different than the average person’s capability. In 2013, University of California researchers discovered people with hyperthymesia are also still susceptible to distorting or falsely remembering events the same way ordinary people are, as those with hyperthymesia utilize the same tools in the brain as every other human.
“Memory is actually more a survival tool than an entertainment platform. We use our experiences, as captured in memory, to anticipate and prepare for upcoming events and encounters,” wrote Dr. Moshe Bar, the Director of the Gonda Multi-Disciplinary Brain Research Center at Bar-Ilan University, in an op-ed for The Los Angeles Times. “This ability to predict is inherent to the way our brains work. We find analogies between new situations and familiar scenarios, and prepare to act with high precision.” Bar added that novelty, or new things, are cues for our brains to store something in long-term memory, as mundane day-to-day routines where nothing memorable happens slip from our minds in favor of memories deemed useful.
But this doesn’t explain why or how a few individuals like Veiseh are able to involuntary record memories of nearly every experience and perception as long-term memories. Brains scans have failed to yield much insight on hyperthymesia. Although hyperthymesia cases studied have additional wiring and activity between the frontal lobes, it is not apparent whether these neural networks developed because of hyperthymesia or are a result of the skills associated with it. From what researchers can tell based on research so far, the condition is somehow associated with tendencies to fantasize, obsess over the past, and become absorbed in a particular activity.
Veiseh’s unique memory has been absorbed into art, as he is the only known professional artist diagnosed with hyperthymesia. | https://observer.com/2016/06/the-artist-who-remembers-everything-and-why-we-dont/ |
Relating to or denoting mental images having unusual vividness and detail, as if actually visible. Though based on the Ancient Greek “εἰδητικός” (meaning “constituting an appearance”), the word was only coined in the early 1900s by German psychologist Erich Rudolf Jaensch who used the term “eidetisch” to describe the particular precision of mental images that were different from and far clearer than regular memories.
“Eidetic” is often used interchangeably with “photographic” to describe the capacity for incredibly detailed and precise memories, but there is a difference between the two terms. Photographic memory usually describes the ability to recall detailed information (including texts and numbers), while “eidetic memory” describes an ability to maintain a vivid picture of something after it is gone, even experiencing a feeling of the image still being present.
Example: Memories of my recently-departed friend have been occurring with eidetic clarity. | https://chiefwritingwolf.com/tag/eidetic/ |
In the past entries, we’ve looked only at the high-end processors as applied to system prices, and we’ll continue to use those as references through the end of this one. We’ll take a look at other price/performance tiers in a later blog, but we want to finish-up on the same footing as we began; again, with an eye to how these systems play in a virtualization environment.
We decided to finish this series with an analysis of real world application instead of just theory. We keep seeing 8-to-1, 16-to-1 and 20-to-1 consolidation ratios (VM-to-host) being offered as “real world” in today’s environment so we wanted to analyze what that meant from an economic side.
The Fallacy of Consolidation Ratios
First, consolidation ratios that speak in terms of VM-to-host are not very informative. For instance, a 16-to-1 consolidation ratio sounds good until you realize it was achieved on an $16,000 4Px4C platform. This ratio results in a $1,000-per-VM cost to the consolidator.
In contrast, let’s take the same 16-to-1 ratio on a $6,000 2Px4C platform and it results in a $375-per-VM cost to the consolidator: a savings of nearly 60%. The key to the savings is in vCPU-to-Core consolidation ratio (provided sufficient memory exists to support it). In the first example that ratio was 1:1, but in the last example the ratio is 2:1. Can we find 16:1 vCPU-to-Core ratios out there? Sure, in test labs, but in the enterprise we think the valid range of vCPU-to-Core consolidation ratios is much more conservative, ranging from 1:1 to 8:1 with the average (or sweet spot) falling somewhere between 3:1 and 4:1.
Second, we must note that memory is a growing aspect of the virtualization equation. Modern operating systems no longer “sip” memory and 512MB for a Windows or Linux VM is becoming more an exception than a rule. That puts pressure on both CPU and memory capacity as driving forces for consolidation costs. As operating system “bloat” increases, administrative pressure to satisfy their needs will mount, pushing the “provisioned” amount of memory per VM ever higher.
Until “hot add” memory is part of DRS planning and the requisite operating systems support it, system admins will be forced to either over commit memory, purchase memory based on peak needs or purchase memory based on average memory needs and trust DRS systems to handle the balancing act. In any case, memory is a growing factor in systems consolidation and virtualization.
Modeling the Future
Using data from the Univerity of Chicago and as a baseline and extrapolating forward through 2010, we’ve developed a simple model to predict vMEM and vCPU allocation trends. This approach establishes three key metrics (already used in previous entries) that determine/predict system capacity: Average Memory/VM (vMVa), Average vCPU/VM (vCVa) and Average vCPU/Core (vCCa).
Average Memory per VM (vMVa)
Average memory per VM is determined by taking the allocated memory of all VM’s in a virtualized system – across all hosts – and dividing that by the total number of VM’s in the system (not including non-active templates.) This number is assumed to grow as virtualization moves from consolidation to standardized deployment. Read the rest of this entry ? | https://blog.solori.net/tag/price-per-vm/ |
- 1 megabit = 106bits = 1000000bits = 1000 kilobits.
The megabit has the unit symbol Mbit.
The megabit is closely related to the mebibit, a unit multiple derived from the binary prefix mebi (symbol Mi) of the same order of magnitude, which is equal to 220bits = 1048576bits, or approximately 5% larger than the megabit. Despite the definitions of these new prefixes for binary-based quantities of storage by international standards organizations, memory semiconductor chips are still marketed using the metric prefix names to designate binary multiples.
Using the common byte size of eight bits and the standardized metric definition of megabit and kilobyte, 1 megabit is equal to 125 kilobytes (kB) or approximately 122 kibibytes (KiB).
The megabit is widely used when referring to data transfer rates of computer networks or telecommunications systems. Network transfer rates and download speeds often use the megabit as the amount transferred per time unit, e.g., a 100 Mbit/s (megabit per second) Fast-Ethernet connection, or a 10 Mbit/s Internet access service, whereas the sizes of data units (files) transferred over these networks are often measured in megabytes. To achieve a transfer rate of one megabyte per second one needs a network connection with a transfer rate of eight megabits per second.
Usage
- In telecommunications, the use of the SI definition of the unit is the standard.
- In the semiconductor industry, it is still common practice to designate random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM) in a binary interpretation of the metric prefixes, such as the megabit, so that one megabit represents 220bits=1048576bits. For example, a single discrete DDR3 chip specified at 512 Mb invariably contains 229 bits = 536870912bits = 512 Mibit of storage, or 671088648-bit bytes, variously referred to as either 64 mebibytes or 64 (binary) megabytes.
- During the 16-bit game console era, the megabit was a commonly used measure of the size (computer data storage capacity) of game cartridges. This size represented one mebibit (Mibit). The vast majority of SNES and Mega Drive (Genesis) games were produced on 8 megabit cartridges, although other sizes such as 4, 12, 16, 24, 32, and 48 megabit cartridges appeared. This usage continued on the Nintendo 64, with cartridge sizes ranging between 32 and 512 megabits.
References
- ^ The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty: SI prefixes
- ^ The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty: Prefixes for binary multiples
- ^ "DDR3 SDRAM Memory Product Guide" (PDF). Samsung Global. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
- ^ "S25FL128P Data Sheet" (PDF). Spansion Support. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
- ^ "1-Megabit (128K x 8) Paged Parallel EEPROMs" (PDF). Atmel Corporation. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
- ^ "JEDEC Standard DDR3 SDRAM Specification" (PDF, 8.8 MB). Retrieved 2008-07-10.
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What's it Like Having One of the World's Best Memories?
By Roger Weber
First, some elephants…
For miles and miles, Mirasa trudged on tired knees willing her family of elephants across a barren African desert. Out the gates of a park designed to protect them, Mirasa’s family put their faith in their leader as she willed them into a land that none of them had ever seen, where poachers still roamed and where their tusks were a priceless bounty. Stepping over the bodies of their fallen brethren, the elephants uttered audible mourns, tapping trunks as if to bow their quiet respects, but they did not stop. For days they marched, quietly risking death before unearthing a small watering hole 80 miles from where they’d started. When the rains hadn’t come, Mirasa’s family miraculously survived. For families with younger leaders, a more painful fate: a death rate of over 80% and wrenching discomfort that bore a painful scar on the memories of the youngsters who survived.
The 1993 drought in Tanzania's Tarangire National Park nearly did in a population of elephants already decimated by poaching from the 1980s. But not all elephants. Mirasa had been one of the lucky ones, eternally scarred by the impacts of a similar drought in 1965, and she’d never forgotten. For her, parched lips were all too familiar. Turning the wheels of time like a projector within her memory, Mirasa acted, and with computational precision she retraced the steps she’d once made as a baby, then incidentally, now as an elder passing on a generational lesson that her children would be sure to never forget.
Like a GPS, elephants’ memories offer a precision few humans can recognize. Able to remember the patterns of each daily journey, the details of each prior location, every individual of every species they ever encounter, elephants have overcome unfathomable odds, forging with strategic intelligence Darwinian success for a species among the most vulnerable in the world. For them, memory is a tool: for assessing threats, for escaping danger, and for maintaining their herds. For them, a brilliant memory is not merely a curiosity, but rather their single greatest tool for evolutionary success. It is perhaps the single-greatest story of self-made triumph in the animal kingdom that an animal so hunted and with so few defenses has the remarkable lifespan of 60 years in the most unforgiving planes on the planet. Hail the remarkable elephant memory.
If elephants were human, we’d diagnose them with a rare condition known as hyperthymesia. Found in just a handful of people around the world, hyperthymesia seems impossible to most: people who from the age of puberty on can remember the mundane daily details of every single day of their entire lives. Every meal, every interaction, every introduction, every grade, every trip to the bathroom.
For many, the potential of hyperthymesia has long been a dream. Within scientology and dianetics, for instance, having “full and perfect recall of every moment” of life was for many years described as the ultimate outcome of being “cleared”, in which, at great expense, the mind is ultimately freed from the influence of engrams, their phraseology for emotions, anxieties, and traumas that cause the mind to be perpetually reactive. According to dianetics, controlling one’s mental energy requires a mind that is not reactive, in which one is in full control. For them, nirvana could only come once perfect memory was achieved, after the bad stuff that prevented it had been cleared out. To them, a perfect memory was a natural state of which everyone is capable. Their illusion that a bit of therapy could create a perfect memory was busted in 1950 when it was proven that Sonya Bianca, the first “clear” they created, actually didn’t have perfect recall of every moment of her life. El Ron Hubbard’s blossoming belief system may have been better served by using somebody with actual hyperthymesia as his first prop.
The reality is that for many hyperthymesia is hardly a blessing. For many who are scarred by their day-to-day memory of past events in their life, hyperthymesia is a curse. For these individuals, the old adage is not true: time, in fact, does not heal all wounds. Instead, memories linger, bright as day, crisp as the fall leaves.
My memory
Since I was young I knew my memory was unusual. If many kids’ brains are like sponges, mine was like the ShamWow. Not only could I remember the long lists of extraneous facts that school teaches about dinosaurs and whales, but about virtually any subject I touched. In 1996 I committed to learning about baseball stadiums, and to this day I remember the capacity of every single stadium in play at that time, as well as its year of opening and what kind of playing surface it had. In 1998 I took to reading about cars and could soon recite the detailed specifications of every single car on the road. To this day I remember how high the speedometer dials ran in each of the major car brands I knew about. Whether it was the heights of buildings or the lengths of bridges, the flood stages of rivers, lists of presidents or baseball’s World Series winners, each was a list I could remember top-to-bottom without even trying.
As I’ve grown older, my ability for memory has transcended the random lists. More powerful than a supercomputer, most people’s minds can remember long lists of information they care about. What’s less common is remembering with such precision and detail the mundane events of daily life for years into one’s past. While characteristic of hyperthymesia are such memories after puberty, my proclivity for memory of such events is both less comprehensive and more lifelong. In an instant I can be taken back to conversations on the playground when I was 8 years old: it’s a mental elixir that washes over me and replays a movie reel word-for-word in my head.
Memories are different in different people, and my proclivity for life memory is characteristically chronological and visual, as if playing a mental movie. While it’s rare for me to remember events based on dates alone, I can easily back into vivid memories if playing the movie from the start of a milestone. While I’d hardly recognize the date August 27, 2002 on its own, the fact that I remember August 10th was a Saturday tells me the 27th was a Tuesday. That school started two and a half weeks out from the day I left camp on the 10th, and that school always starts on a Wednesday, tells me the 27th was the day before, and I remember well spending the morning of that day in pre-start of school prep sessions, where I debated with my friend a college football game that that weekend ended with a score of 45-21. Our argument centered on whether it was a convincing win, and I remember pointing out to him that with five minutes left in the game the score was a more convincing 38-7. That afternoon I bought my first cell phone with my mom. The salesman was a clean-shaven white male, and that day they were out of orange phone covers so I got a red one instead, and the gentleman threw in a free charcoal one for our troubles. While it was a typical August day around noon, that afternoon the skies got murkier and it started to rain as I sat in a chair in my room (As a check on myself I looked up the weather and in fact it did rain from around 1 to 3 pm). I fumbled on my phone through ringtones, ultimately selecting the “Charge” song.
Once at Red Lobster with my girlfriend a couple years months ago I tested that theory (we got the Seaside Shrimp Trio if you’re wondering) by asking her to give me a random date in my life. The date she picked was in 2005, and while I remembered little from the day, I was able to back into the score of a basketball game that I concluded must have happened on that day (it did). A particular team lost 67-60, and it dropped their overall record to 12-7 on the season (they finished 20-12).
Among other things, sports scores are a great orienting mechanism for my memory, as they help me frame the years in bite-size increments – the weeks between football games and the gentle flow of the baseball season. That I remember the score of literally every single game that has occurred since 1995 of one of my favorite sports teams, as well as the details of most of those games, remains to this day one of the strangest facts about me.
The one frustrating blind spot is a period toward the end of college into my early professional life when I spent less time worrying about sports and more time worrying about my social life. For that period I must use other orienting mechanisms, such as that I remember text messages from April 20th, 2013, the last day I hung out with a group of friends I had met at a trivia contest on February 7th of that year. I had prepared macaroni and cheese for dinner the Sunday prior. On August 17th I spent a weekend with my then-girlfriend, and on September 1st I penned an article on my patio the day after a friend spent the night.
My memory is an elixir: a challenging struggle between ready avenues to both escape from my day-to-day life by replaying the mental movies from better days (I’m a great storyteller at parties, for that reason, as long as you have the patience for long drawn our chronological anthologies), or to be mired in the eternally haunting anxieties from bad memories from which I cannot escape. I’ve learned, for instance, that others remember far less about me than I remember about them, though one bad experience with a single individual can make me bristle about that person for the rest of my life.
The upside to the mental movies is that I can happily awash myself in past triumphs and tell stories with amazing detail. It’s literally like a drug. I descend into a state of mental nirvana in which memories flow and details pour like waterfalls. On the flip side, it causes challenges: when I was asked to contemplate my dating history a few years ago, the result was a spreadsheet of 523 names of every girl I’d ever had a crush on, described in columns across nearly 100 variables that described aspects of who they were. It was a little much. For those that don’t enjoy longwinded stories or extensive spreadsheets, my constant need to filter out my memory in real time is a cumbersome and exhausting exercise. I found it highly surprising not long ago when somebody revealed to me that most people do not in fact remember the names of which classmates were in each of their classes in high school.
On the downside I can easily get mired in an unenviable past reality that makes me unable to escape the vivid memories of stupid things from long ago that should be easily forgettable. What for most people are fleeting phases of life development are for me as clear as they ever were, and that can be annoying. If I could whitewash away large portions of my memories, I’d certainly think about doing so, and at times am envious of those who can more easily “move on”.
The other downside of an exhaustive memory is that I constantly have to fight the urge to turn casual conversations about generalities into ones that cite specific history from decades ago. Here’s a typical conversation about sports:
Me: “What do you think of those [insert sports team here] this year??
Other person: “I got 50 bucks on ‘em but ain’t looking good if they can’t figure out what to do with 2 quarterbacks”
Me: “Yeah, but both guys are good
Other person: “Nah man, 2 qb’s is a recipe for disaster”
Me: “It wasn’t for the 1996 team. That year they made the two qb system work really well”
Other person *scratches head*: “Huh. Was that the Joe Jasmine year?”
Me: “No, that was 1998. ’98 was a good team but I think ’96 actually was better. Remember those first three games of the ’96 season and how good the left side of that offensive line was? Well, the first and third games, really, I mean. They had some lapses in game 2 that got them behind 17-7 in the first half but they still ended up winning 70-17.”
Other person: “No. I don’t remember any of that”.
On the plus side, my memory has helped me make up for countless deficiencies. My memory gives me a deep bank of experience from which to draw when it comes to interacting with others: even if we share little in common, I sure have a lot of memory experience to draw upon, and that means I can converse on nearly any subject. Similarly, my memory makes me a solid public speaker: while I have never in my life memorized a speech, I can crisply and confidently remember enormous volumes of information, and with just a little bit of a slick tongue in most any formal setting I can come across as knowledgeable. Musically, memory allowed me to overcome an utter inability to sightread music. I’m an audible trumpet player: if I hear it once, I’ve got it down. In my college marching band I quickly memorized a full repertoire of nearly 100 songs. While I never needed music, my free hands made me a good leader for the trumpet section, responsible for sorting out sheet music for everyone else. And finally, athletically, despite a lack of deep athletic talent, muscle memory has helped me excel in specialized skills: shooting three-pointers in basketball, tossing cornhole bags, and shooting pool.
I’ve only recently come to understand that what I have is as abnormal as it is. What memory percentile do I fall in? The 95th? The 98th? Whatever it is does little to explain why. If there’s an explanation, my friend in the medical field suggests it might be that I am blind, completely blind, in my left eye. In her hypothesis, the void in sensory activity in the vicinity of that eye left a large portion of my brain a sort of vacant strip mall: fully developed, ready for occupancy. That I have a movie screen for memory where the eye should have been is perhaps just a real estate reality that somebody had to move in and create value for the neighborhood. It seems unlikely, but until I hear a better story I’ll take her word for it.
At least it might explain why elephants have notoriously such poor eyesight.
Connect with us at: | https://www.capitalfrontiers.com/single-post/what-s-it-like-having-one-of-the-world-s-best-memories |
Visual memory is a part of memory preserving some characteristics of our senses pertaining to visual experience. We are able to place in memory information that resembles objects, places, animals or people in sort of a mental image. Some authors refer to this experience as an “our mind's eye” through which we can retrieve from our memory a mental image of the original object, place, animal or person.
The first scientist to give serious consideration to visual imagery was Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) in the field of individual differences. In his research Galton asked his subjects to describe and rate their visual images on vividness. He was able to demonstrate a wide range of clarity, ranging from vivid mental images to none among his test subjects (Galton, 1883).
Since this way of judging mental image has very little scientific objectivity, psychologists devised more objective ways of evaluating mental images, based on how much information can be retrieved from them. Overall, there are not conclusive data that would support any benefits from visual mnemonics (Baddeley, 1976).
Contents
Eidetic imagery
Eidetic imagery is perhaps the only kind that produces actual visual memory that can be looked at similarly as if at looking the actual picture. Lake, Haber and Haber produced a study in which they presented a subject with an image for 30 seconds. After removing the image the subjects ware asked whether they could see anything. In a study of elementary school children they presented them with an illustration of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. After removing it some children were describing with a vivid accuracy the image they have seen. (Haber, 1969)
Eidetic imagery seems to have more effect on children since the adult subjects did not describe similar experience. Koslyn assigns this difference to the lack of verbal and conceptual systems in children, when comparing to adult (Koslyn, 1980, 1984).
There are two kinds of memory related to eidetic imagery: photographic memory and iconic memory.
Photographic memory
There is also no supportive evidence for photographic memory. This phenomenon is usually displayed by some individuals' exceptional skills in mental organization.
Iconic memory
See Iconic memory.
Spatial memory
spatial memory is the part of memory responsible for recording information about one's environment and its spatial orientation. For example, a person's spatial memory is required in order to navigate around a familiar city, just as a rat's spatial memory is needed to learn the location of food at the end of a maze.
Visuospatial memory
Visuospatial memory can be considered a subcategory of visual memory because it relies on a cognitive map
See also
References & Bibliography
Key texts
Books
- Riddoch, M. J. & Humphreys, G. W. (1991) The smiling giraffe: An illustration of a visual memory disorder. In R. Campbell (Ed.), Mental Lives. Oxford: Basil Blackwells.
Papers
- Gleitman, H.(1991)Psychology, 7, 275-278.
Additional material
Books
Papers
External links
- Neural Basis of Spatial Memory is a fascinating website focusing on the physiological aspect of spatial memory.
Sources
- This page was originally created for WikEd, a service to the education community by the CTER program in the Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. | https://psychology.fandom.com/wiki/Visual_memory |
The purpose and problem of this quantitative research study is to establish a correlation between exposure to a second language program and increased performance in the areas of literacy, mathematical literacy, and scientific literacy. The hypothesis claims that students who are exposed to second language programs will be exposed to two decoding and encoding systems of language. The result of this exposure would be that they will obtain the decoding, encoding, inference, and contextual reading skills that are needed to excel at tasks in all areas. The background of the study is the premise that all subject areas in academics require the essential skill of understanding what is read as a foundation. An example from the study was Mathematical literacy: A student who is not a good reader or cannot perform good inferences skills will not be able to understand the language and vocabulary in a Math tasks, therefore, will not be able to fulfill what the problem requires regardless of the student’s computation skills.
The research was performed in 2004 by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in combination with delegates from countries who participate in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECF). These two organizations collaborate regularly in assessing a sample of 30,000 15-year-old students who are randomly selected from over 1,000 schools in national and provincial Canada. The group aims to assess the levels of achievements of this particular population in literacy, math, and science.
There were several different tools used to measure the data. The first was a standardized test produced by the group, which contained questions about the skills to be assessed. They also used questionnaires to obtain demographic data and background information on the students with the authorization of principals and the parents.
students in French immersion programs performed at levels equal to or better than the Canadian national reading score average (534)” (p. 10), which supports the central hypothesis of the study.
The threat to the validity of these results may be that in French immersion programs as the investigators claimed, the students come from higher socioeconomic backgrounds where the parents have a post secondary education, which could result in their motivating the students to expand their learning through being ample and better readers. Another threat to the validity is that more girls than boys participate in the French immersion programs in Canada and, according to research, girls are more cognitively developed than boys at that age level. However, the researchers counter argue that these factors alone do not account for the ample difference in scoring. In fact, the researchers say that it would be null to try to correlate affluence and family schooling to the results because there are French immersion programs more readily available in the less- affluent countries due to government grants, and the students.
Another threat to the validity of the data was the possibility that French immersion programs in some counties screen the students prior to entering and, mistakenly, assume that a student who already possesses high reading skills are entitled to participate, while those who are not as skilled are left out. That also accounts for the fact that more girls than boys participate in the French immersion program, making the distribution of the sample unequal. Another possible threat was that students at that age level tend to transfer out of the second language program when they are not doing too well (either not to be embarrassed, or to try another elective course), and only those whom are skilled and successful will remain after the “natural selection” type process that took them there in the first place.
The impact of this study is, however, that the researchers point out clearly the need for further research in the areas of cooperative learning, and free-learning environments. French immersion programs are known for their tendency to allow the student to freely determine their learning needs, to select their own books, to work in cooperative groups, and to model the learning styles of each other. This could be influential in the student’s learning processes.
In conclusion, this study applies the Banduran view of social learning as a process to acquire academic skills. It also credits Vygotsky’s cooperative learning, and MKO’s as a successful way to integrate language and information in the learning process; It also grants validity to Krashen’s free-based learning by pointing out the importance of the student as the center of the learning. Most importantly, the study denotes underlying influences of Chomsky’s view of language as a skill that is inherited and developed through further exposure and consistent interaction that would increase the cognitive abilities. The results, both theoretical and empirical, show that students will be successful thanks to a combination of both cognitive and social abilities that could be the key to ensure success in other academic areas. Second language learning is a very influential conduit to allow for these elements to occur.
This study correlates literature and research in the areas of linguistics and psychology, particularly those pertaining to target-word retrieval during second language acquisition. The process of target-word retrieval involves recalling words learned in a second language. It does not limit itself to merely remembering the word, but also to apply the word within a context. The ability to perform this latter process implies a deeper knowledge of the term, and a demonstration of learning. According to the study, the process of word retrieval is proportional to memory skills, that is, one works with the other, and retrieving actually shows to improve memory skills. On and all, the exposure to word-retrieval tasks might enhance memory skills and retrieval for additional subjects. This premise guided the methodology and data collection process of the research. The study also advocated for picture-based instruction in a foreign language, therefore, the materials to be applied to the methodology was also correlated to this premise.
The participants were English-speaking students who were learners of Spanish as a second language. The students were selected randomly, and a pre-test was first given to diagnose their current level of cognitive ability and language recognition. The students first studied 24 word-picture pairs of new Spanish words. After their first post-test, they were given 12 out of the 24 original pairs of new words, but out of that group 6 pictures were not matched to a word. The students were asked to retrieve information from the old and new words as they learned them in the beginning. Finally, the rest of the 12 matched words were given with no pairing at all. Each group of students spent the same amount of time in each of these tasks, and a post test was provided after each one. The three posts tests that were administered were the main variables, as the first one was given immediately after the task, the second one waited two days, and the third one waited one week. Another important note from this research is that none of the new words came with translation- they were all paired up to pictures; this means that the activity was done in full-immersion without the aid of English words.
The results of the study come with several implications to second language learning. For once, the students performed at a much higher level in this task using picture words than in their regular school tasks using Spanish to English translations. Secondly, the post tests that allotted more time for the students to retrieve words also noted a consistent high rate of recognized words- the students did not show extinction of language, in fact, they did retain the words they learned. Finally, the study invited to further research in the area of neuropsychology and linguistics, to conduct more brain-imaging research showing factual correlations between the assumed synergism between memory and word-retrieval, and whether they indeed enhance each other.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the adaptation paradigm of second language acquisition as it relates to the left caudate, an area of the brain which is thought to intermingle with the prefrontal cortex during the process of language discrimination, and hence in the process of code-switching. The study aims to implicate these two regions as mirror areas of brain activity during language reproduction.
The study shows a new method which dissociates brain regions sensitive to words meaning and brain regions sensitive to both word meaning and language. The examination of the subcortical brain areas in language research pertain to the exploration of how humans choose to identify different code systems and languages from its processing to its application in the proper context. To this day, neuroscientists continue to investigate and isolate the areas which are most active in processes like these. Yet, this study demonstrated that there are specific language-dependent neuronal responses that activate during tasks where word meanings were asked one at a time.
The paradigm under which the study is based is language adaptation. The adaptation paradigm conveys that during certain tasks, specific neurons respond in a similar way in different areas of the brain under the same type of stimuli. Some of these neurons live within the same brain region, and show a different sensitivity from one task to another. For the purpose of this study, semantics were tested in different individuals, where they had to make a decision between two words shown as prime-target pairs. Words were shown and controlled in a way that the word pairs would entice thinking in different ways within the same parameters. For example, the different pairs of words were tasked in these four limitations a) semantically related in the same language, b) semantically related in a different language, c) semantically unrelated in the same language, and d) semantically unrelated in a different language. The sensitivity in the cerebral zones that would be activated in the response process of word recognition was measured with neuro imaging.
As cited previously, the left caudate of the brain was the area which showed the most activity during these processes, making it a prime candidate for the control of language production. Since this is a subcortical structure of the brain, Chee mentions that studies often leave the area undiscussed. The author opens an invitation to further exploration of the left caudate area, its interaction with the prefrontal and frontal cortex, and its role in the production and discrimination of languages.
The implications of this study to the dept component of this KAM are the clear additional brain activity that occurs when a second language is learned. Although this KAM portion will not discuss the effects of lack of activation of specific brain events, it will point out the fact that second language acquisition doubles brain activity and expands activity in areas that will not be used by monolinguals. Therefore, for the sake of individuals and their brain activity, second language learning is the solution to, perhaps, a most-active and healthier brain.
in the preschool years there is a conflict that results from lack of conscious representation and executive functioning (mostly due to lack of exposure and prior knowledge). Therefore, the study aims to see whether there is an advantage in these areas with bilingual children parting from the premise that their exposure to a second language grants them more prior knowledge upon which they can build new information and establish stronger learning connections. Another goal for this study is to investigate whether the advantage in control (attention) found in bilinguals can also occur in situations where no language is involved, and only non-verbal tasks are available.
The participants of this study were sixty students in the preschool of which half of the group is bilingual. After being divided into younger and older they took an English proficiency test with working memory tasks (cue-cards). The tasks were statistical and empirical ways to measure the level of ability. The students were selected from a homogeneous pool, but randomly for purposes of pure quantified results.
The results of this study showed that the bilingual children were better able than the monolingual students to solve experimental problems , which would normally require a certain amount of prior knowledge to build knowledge upon. The implications of this study go together with the next research review also by Bialystok which shows that both children and older adults seem to have an advantage in terms of working memory, retention, attention, and recalling if they are exposed to a second language for sustained and long periods of their lifetimes. This means that for the field of education, this is evidence of the many additive benefits of second language program in the academic life of students.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether aging adults who are bilingual show a decrease in attentional cognitive abilities in comparison with people their own age who are monolingual. The foundation of this study is research that points that in a bilingual brain, the two languages are in constant interaction, and that both remain equally active even if one of the alone is being activated the most. This axiom grants that, though both languages are active together, there is a mechanism that sets a boundary between them so that there is no cross-linguistic intrusion from one language to another. In other studies, such mechanism was proposed as a possible center of inhibition control that puts the non-relevant language in a secondary position while making all cognitive functions accessible to the language of choice. These cognitive functions include attention and inhibition. Although this is a proposed model for cross-lingual interaction, it is still an accepted theoretical and research-based fact the assumption that attention control, language inhibition, and representational functions (crystallized intelligence, concrete notions of something) are essential skills that manifest themselves throughout the bilingual’s life.
This study assumes that such same skills will continue even during late adulthood, but the research question is basically whether the normal decline of executive control functions that happen with age include the skills that come with bilingualism. Studies have pointed that when older adults show a decline in the effectiveness of executive control, this situation can be stopped if the task performance is dependent on strong, conditioned habits. Aging individuals, therefore, do decline in their effective control of attention, but not in their ability to maintain habitual behaviors, and there is not a decrease either in their knowledge of represented elements (unless there is an illness of the brain).
For the purposes of this study, the methodology that was used was the Simon task. This task is suitable for all age groups, because the task is content-free, but dependent on the cognitive process of each individual. The Simon task is based on stimulus–response compatibilities.
The increased time needed to respond to the incongruent items is called the Simon effect, this effect is more evident according to the study in adults around 61 years of age, contrastingly from a comparable group of older adults of a mean age of 25. This means that the Simon task measures the thinking process as it declines with age.
The results of the study determined that the bilingual advantages in controlled processing continue to be sustained from childhood into adulthood. Adult bilinguals performed better adult monolinguals in all the tasks. The study also concluded that bilingualism does provide a defense against a decline of the executive processes that occur during cognitive aging. It is important to note that the study was also able to determine that the Simon effect was substantially less for those aging participants who were bilingual. The last proven hypothesis of the study stated that bilingualism might not only prevent the loss of inhibitory control, but that it could even boost it. In addition to that, bilingualism showed to be an advantage in tasks related to working memory costs. This leads to the additional expectation that the additive effects of bilingualism are directly related to executive control functions which act to reduce the negative impact of aging. Bilinguals were faster in both congruent trials and under conditions requiring greater working memory control than monolinguals, possibly because the executive processes that are involved in attention and selection are central main elements that continue intact throughout life. The advantages of bilingualism were most obvious in tasks requiring controlled processing. The monolinguals had to go through a series of practice tasks in order to reach a close-enough score to the bilingual learners.
The implications of this study to the teaching and implementation of foreign language programs is more evident in that the bilinguals present at these studies were using both languages essentially every day for their entire lives. The study cannot be expanded to bilinguals with limited experience with their second learned language, yet, this lets us know that a fully-immersed program that begins in the elementary school and continues consistently throught high school could foster the interest and the habit in the child that would allow him or her to explore diverse venues in which they can apply the use of their second language, and obtain the evident benefits that such abilities bring to the social, communicative, and now even biological life of the student.
The purpose of this study is to identify specific brain activity during the processes of encoding, retention, and retrieval. These three processes are key elements of the learning process as previously discussed in the Breadth component of the Knowledge Area Module, and coincide with Albert Bandura’s philosophy of learning. According to Bandura, an learning involves a series of steps which, in this theory of social learning, are: a) attention, b) retention, c) reproduction, and d) motivation (Bandura, 1977, p. 31). The research by deZubicaray, McMahon, Wilson, and Muthia helps to correlate Bandura’s theory to cognitive and specific neurological processes.
This study examined brain activity under a Delayed Non-Matching to Sample (DNMS) task. It used the premise that imaging studies performed in humans indicate that the human supplementary eye-field is involved in learning new tasks, namely new languages. Secondly, the process of retention was attributed to the central lateral prefrontal cortex o the brain. After encoding, their research proposes that the ventral lateral prefrontal area receives cortical signs selectively in such an area during the process of retention which was mostly shown under cognitive testing tasks. Also, in the left brainstem, the inferior parietal lobule plays a role along with the right lateral pre-motor cortex in the process of keeping information stored.
This study also made a reference to recent studies performed in the supplementary eye-field area. The supplementary eye-field is a topic of research that has become a hot topic in the field of neurology, as it tries to identify learning processes with working memory as they relate to eye movement. In this study, it was determined that this supplementary eye-field is indeed involved in the process of knowledge acquisition. However topographic mapping research still cannot point out the precise function of this particular area other than it is in control of the saccadic eye movements that are often associated with retrieval of memories.
This study has great implications in the field of education, particularly in the areas of second language teaching. The neurological areas associated with learning are clearly activated with memory tasks, inference tasks, and slot filling exercises that often require the saccadic eye movement of the student to retrieve stored information.
This study explores two methodologies in the teaching of foreign languages which are retrieval practice and the keyword mnemonic. Retrieval practice is the process through which people obtain previously learned information, recall it, and act on it as they remember it. It is gathering past information from the depths of the brain and forward. The keyword mnemonic is one of the methodologies used to aid in the retrieval of information. It consists on making a connection between the new word and an image. The image may or may not be that of the words itself, but of an object whose name is has a key word that makes the student remember what it is called . An example for a foreign language course would be (if teaching Spanish) to show a picture of a sun (sol, pronounced in Spanish “sole” or “soul”) to teach the English words sole and soul.
The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of keyword mnemonics versus retrieval practice which is a testing-based technique for learning. The methodology consisted on three experiments testing the results of mnemonics versus retrieval testing. Mnemonics are associated with higher skills by the teacher who is assumed to be full certified in the second language to the point that he or she could provide the correct vocabulary cues intended for such mechanisms. It is theorized that the keyword method requires a myriad of cognitive mechanisms to achieve task. This study aims to determine the long-term and concrete effectiveness of the use of this strategy to determine the extent of its additive nature to a second language program.
The methodology of this research involved asking participants to retrieve the names of items into three schedules : categorized in mass, categorized uniformly and uniform spacing, and categorized within an expanding spacing. Theoretically, asking participants to retrieve and recall terms in an expanding schedule which allots for more exposure is more beneficial than a uniform schedule that exposes the student to the term only once. Immediate recalls also seem to prove more effective in the process of memory activation than a delayed effort with intervening events. The results showed also that the best retrievals were those in which representations were shown along with the task. Therefore, retrieval practice and keyword mnemonics are thought to need spacing in the retrieval attempts that is not too short for it to be discarded early, nor too long to be endangered by the intervention of other events that will lose focus.
The implications of this study are that in a second language program, for it to have its additive benefits for learning, and for it to instill another way to approach good study habits, a retrieval practice and keyword learning process should be: a) accompanied with visual representations and, b) spaced in a way that the student can maintain focus and attention on the task. Retrieval practice , according to the study is an effective learning strategy for any subject, and a prime strategy for foreign language learning.
Ginsburgh, V., Ortuño-Ortín, I., Weber, S. (2007) Learning foreign languages: Theoretical and empirical implications of the Selten and Pool model. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 64 (4) p. 337-347.
The research by Ginsburgh, Ortuño-Ortín, and Weber uses the Selten and Pool model to experiment characterizing a linguistic equilibrium in a non-linear setting, and then determine the percentage of demand to acquire a second language among the participants. In their experiment, they varied the Selten/Pool model in their axiom that if one population who speaks a specific language is higher in numbers than another, the lesser group will be prompted to learn the language, but the higher population might not be included to learn the language of the smaller group. The study hypothesizes that the concrete benefits of learning the language will supersede the motivation of learning it for communicative reasons. Also, if the languages are relatively similar or come from the same root, like in the case of English and German, or Spanish and Portuguese, the study theorizes that the likely result will be that the higher member group will not learn the lesser group language under the premise that they can figure it out.
The results of the study concluded the reasons why, according to this model, people were motivated to learn a second language, even without incentives: The larger the native population that speaks the language, the less speakers are prone to learn another language. Inversely, the more the foreign language is spoken, the more it attracts others to learn it, and finally, the larger the distance between the two languages, the smaller the proportion of people who will learn it. Other determinant factors that motivate people to learn a foreign language includes ancestry, historical interest in the cultural background of the language.
The implications of this study for the Depth component of the KAM pertain to the social additive benefits of second and foreign language learning. The Selten/Pool model and this present research, can be used in a school district as a foundation to establish an initiative for creating new second language programs. Based on these models, the propaganda in favor of new foreign language programs could focus on the cultural and historical points of interest of different countries. The rationale of promoting the Steele/Pool model for the creation of foreign language programs can be the speed and ease by which students can access information and even virtual entrance to any country in the world through the World Wide Web. Taking this momentum along with all the free, available technological resources, a foreign language program would have the participation of many interested students. As long as the program is properly advertised and correctly correlated to academic areas, its benefits will translate into added social, academic, communicative, historical, and personal interest skills among students. All these elements, as proposed by the philosophers in the Breadth component, led to effective and productive learning experiences.
This study grants the premise of a connection between memory activity and second language learning. Concrete and sufficient empirical research is still needed to determine how memory works during the process of word-retrieval in second language learning. More research is also needed to determine if there is any advantage for the preservation and use of memory between bilingual and monolingual students. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to intends to provide one more piece of evidence that might serve to establish the relationship between bilingualism and memory. In this case, two groups of participants were compared in the areas of episodic memory and semantic memory.
Episodic memory and Semantic memory are discussed in full in the article as full-fledge neurocognitive processes. An episodic memory is the immediate exposure to an event, and its instant recall. This memory occurs in the medial temporal lobe. In the left hemisphere of the brain, people recognize an object they see, but it is the pre-frontal cortex which gives it form and meaning. Semantic memory is retrieved to get general knowledge facts. Episodic memories are connected to personal experiences and carry with them the emotions and connections made by individuals. Both semantic and episodic memories collaborate together, and one does not necessarily supersede the other. These two types of memory retrieval were compared and contrasted among bilingual and monolingual students who were randomly selected and tasked.
The participants were a total of 120 children. Sixty of the children were bilingual, and the other 60 were monolingual. To support the validity of the findings, each group of 60 children was divided into 30 boys and 30 girls in each the bilingual and the monolingual groups. Their mean ages ranged from 8.5 to 10.5 to 12.5 to enable the comparison among groups by a set age level of 2.5 years in between. Each of the groups was asked to perform tasks involving episodic memory and semantic memory. The same amount of activity and the same activities were given, only the bilingual children did them in their two dominant tongues. For the episodic memory, the students were asked to do free and cued recall, student-performed tasks using realia, and verbal exercises. The semantic tasks involved word tests, spelling, and telling what words mean.
The results of the research showed that both the monolingual students and the bilingual students at the youngest age levels were able to perform with high efficacy the retrieval of personal experiences and the recall of events as they were asked. However, bilingual students of all age levels demonstrated an ability to categorize, organize, retrieve, and reproduce the information that was asked from them in both their mother and their second language.
The implications of this study show that second language acquisition experiences expose students to twice the amount of opportunities for neurological activity and memory retrieval. The study also demonstrates that there is a connection between memory and second language acquisition learning processes, which was already deemed in need for further research. However, this study can be used as yet another piece of evidence to support future investigations in the area of memory and language learning, and underlies the benefits of second language learning in schools.
The purpose of this article is to summarize the additive benefits of second language acquisition programs based on research conducted specifically in the French immersion (FI) student populations. The foundation of the study is that surveys have established a clear and concrete linguistic, academic, and cognitive advantage of French immersion students over monolingual students. This advantage shows student proficiency in language (English and French) across the board in all academic subjects, denoting a connection that second language acumen and allows for enhance decoding skills.
Lazaruk lists several cognitive and social reasons to support the establishment of more language immersion programs among schools. In terms of academic achievement, he confers that bilingualism is a conduit to heightened mental flexibility, increased creative skills, and other expansive and additive skills that lead to success in all other areas. In social terms, Lazaruk correlates bilingualism to metalinguistic awareness, social tolerance, the increase of communicative sensitivity and multicultural openness. The proficiency in both languages enhances the students’ sense of self-efficacy and establishes one more social bond that they can use to learn from their peers.
The purpose of this study was to establish the importance of earlier versus later exposure to a second language. The study hopes to find out whether age makes a difference in the second language learning process, and to counter argue research that favors earlier exposure to second language, claiming that “younger is better”. According to Larson-Hall, previous second language research favoring exposure to younger students had only focused on immigrant populations that become fully immersed in the new language as means of survival in the new country, or as a way to blend in the new culture focused on The implications of the investigation will also conclude on what elements should be taken into consideration when establishing a new second language program in schools, based on the collected data.
The null hypothesis of this study is that students who are exposed to a second language at an earlier state will acquire the same amount of language as a group exposed to a second language at a later developmental state. The hypothesis of the study is that age will play a role in the amount of language acquired, and that there is an advantage to be exposed to a second language earlier in life. Such hypothetical statements are based on the premise that both groups of students will receive the same amount of contact hours (4 hours per week, which is considered “minimal exposure”) and will be tested in the same language acquisition skills after a period of exposure. The author was clear to specify that the parameters of the study did not include a focus on prime age for language learning, but that it would specifically compare the results of older and younger learners with similar inputs without emphasizing on particular ages as “best” times for learning second languages. She based this on the fact that, although studies continue to suggest that an earlier age will allow for more malleable learning experiences, still the specificity of the areas in which students are prime during second language learning are to be determined with more research.
The participants for these students were Japanese college students whose exposure to English as a second language happened earlier in their life, from ages three to twelve. In comparison, the study also tested a sample student population who had been exposed to English during middle school, receiving the same amount of English language input at minimal exposure rates. The students were assessed on a test based on phonemic discrimination and grammaticality judgment task. The variables to be controlled included the language aptitude of the students, and the amount of language input and exposure to which the participants will be faced. The results were measured quantitatively using the scores of the test and the correlations were made based on what was found using ANCOVA analysis.
The results of this experiment showed that there were indeed correlations because the students who started earlier scored higher in the grammaticality judgment. Phonemic ability was also higher on the earlier learners, but not on the morphosyntactic assessment. The author attributes these abilities varying from group to group because of the level of linguistic maturity and development that the students have attained cognitively, and physically.
The most important result of this study lays on the fact that it consistently showed that the amount of input continues to be the key element regardless of the age level that is being assessed. In other words, in a minimum-exposure scenario, regardless of the age of the student, the group that gets more input, more exposure, and more interaction to the target language will inevitably be the one who which acquire it first. The study did show differences in the processing of the earlier learners, as seen before, but those results merely pointed at the way that they learn at this particular level of development, and not at the amount of language acquired.
The implications of this study to the thesis of the depth component is that it shows the phonetic and grammatical branching of the individual’s brain throughout these processes at both the earlier and the later learning levels. This means that exposure to a second language program indeed triggers additional and expansive thinking tasks which will inevitably intensify the learning engagement and experience of the student. A learning system of this nature can be used as a conduit to integrate other subject areas; the methodology through which it is taught, even at the minimal exposure level, demonstrates that it still entices the student to engage in higher level thinking. Therefore, this is yet another research-based evidence on why second language programs should either be instituted or should remain in effect in the American school system.
This article is a compilation of research-based findings that support the additive value of second language education, particularly that of two-way immersion programs. Although the article is not a quantitative or qualitative research itself, it does serve as a reference point from which to argue in favor of further studies in neurology, psychology and education that would support and insist on the establishment of second language programs throughout American schools in the form of immersion.
The author emphasizes on two reasons to be taken into consideration for establishing two-way immersion programs. The first is the changing demographics in the United States and its effect on the economy. The second is the proven additive benefits of second language learning in cognitive development. The case for changing demographics pertains to the influx of large numbers of immigrant groups. The study mentions the prospect of the American population by the year 2050, which is expected to be made up of at least 24% Latinos and 10% Asians. The influx comes complete with its own language systems, idiosyncrasies, traditions, and mannerisms which are behaviors that, as explained in the breadth component, are expected to infiltrate in the mainstream population, borrowing and introducing new terminologies. As the previously explained Steele- Pool model states, a majority group will be most likely to learn the minority group’s language with the motivators of language proximity, code similarities, or the incentive of career opportunities and making money. Therefore, in a growing population of added diversity, two way immersion in a language which is increasing in use would be a decision that will bring economic and professional growth to a growing nation. The academic achievement premise is backed up by every research article presented in the depth component of the KAM.
The article ends with an explanation of how to implement a successful immersion program. Most importantly, the two models of common Two-Way Bilingual Instruction are analyzed in detail. The 90:10 program appeals to students in the Kindergarten and 1st grade level. The instructional day is delivered in the second language for 90 percent of the day. Ten percent of the day is dedicated to the first language, reading, and fluency. In grades 2nd and 3rd, the systems change to 80 percent target language, and 20 percent first language. Eventually, the student is expected to perform well in both languages to the point that school subjects can be divided evenly across the board and taught in either of the two languages.
The 50:50 method is different, but aims towards the same goals. The instructional day is divided into the two languages throughout the curriculum. The simultaneous model has the students learning in both languages in kindergarten, while the successive model starts out in the native language. Once their levels of literacy are achieved in their first language, they receive instruction in the second language beginning in the third grade.
The article calls for careful preparation and assessment of available resources and cites for rewarding outcomes that result from Two Way Bilingual Immersion exposure. One of the most salient is the fact that children exposed to these programs not only scored higher in standardized testing in the areas of literacy, but also in Math. This success is attributed to the ease in acquiring literacy coding, which allows for better language comprehension. This ability leads not only to better abilities to understand verbal problems in literacy, but also in Math. This ensures higher academic achievement, and a possible better attitude towards school and learning.
The field of linguistics has an association with the field of neurology and psychology due to the synergism between brain activity and the production of language. One of the most researched topics in second language learning is the role of working memory. The main theoretical backgrounds that are the foundation of this research are that: a) working memory is a main element of second language aptitude, b) working memory is a second language aptitude and c) the capacity for working memory is interrelated to the capacity to acquire and maintain a language. The theory of working memory capacity is similar to Krashen’s hypotheses of natural input, monitor language, language acquired, and language learned. In the capacity theory, it is thought that during the processing of a word or a sentence, the capacity that is already inherent to an individual will incur in the role of building the syntactic and semantic connections that are required to comprehend it. However, in order for these connections to be achieved, there had to be a set of representations of the word or sentence.
Another theory that drives this investigation is the Separate Sentence Interpretation Resource (SSIR) by Waters and Caplan (1996). This theory states that there are two ways in which the brain recognizes sentence structures. One is the process of building the actual representation in the brain and then giving it a “theme” to make sense of it. The second is a type of monitor system that evokes Chomskyan’s generative language processes, where the information is processed and then categorized and stored in the working memory. Therefore, the purpose of van den Noort study is to take the inconsistency of the capacity versus the SSIR theories and take verbal span measures to determine the role of both simple and complex verbal working memory measures.
The hypothesis of this study is that there is an interactive synergism between foreign language proficiency and working memory capacity. The methodology of this study consisted in a sample group who was fluent in three Germanic languages. The participants were selected at random, and within a homogeneous group.
The results of this study showed a dynamic set of responses in working memory tasks that varied from the first, to the second and third languages. The differences applied to both simple and complex memory tasks, and were consistent throughout the languages, making it clear that there is indeed a connection and correlation between working memory capacity and foreign language acquisition.
The purpose of this research is to empirically quantify level of neurological activity through the process of foreign language acquisition. The aim of the investigation is to determine which parts of the brain become engaged in neurological processes during second language learning, and to which extent. The data collected aspires to solidify the claims that second language learning enhances cognitive ability. Recent research has produced enough data to determine that there are specific parts of the brain that are engaged in the process of language learning and that brain activity is higher during this type of learning. The investigators of this study offer that, in spite of this, there is still is not a final answer, nor one absolute empirical evidence, that shows the exact processes that take place during second language acquisition. The information that is currently available comes close to breaking down a learning code, but it is still considered an “approximate” rather than a rule. This study is one of those approximates.
The methodology of this research was selected based on the rationale of the study: That second language acquisition occurs either through rote memory (learning with patterns and creating a habit), or with the use of context cues (extracting meaning it from context). For this reason, the investigators used event-related brain potentials (ERPs). ERPs are neurobiological responses produced by the brain during the thinking process. As with all ERP’s, these responses are measured with electroencephalography (EEG), which in turn would obtain the electrical activity through the skull and scalp. It is important to note that using these resources is in itself a delicate process, since the EEG reflects multiple possible brain activities taking place at the same time. However, EEG’s are specifically reliable in measuring brain activities under unexpected stimuli. The exposure to a foreign language is to be considered unexpected stimuli, therefore, EEGs and ERPs are valid methodologies to employ in the data collection.
The results of the study reflected in the EEG imaging showed a brain signature, or a pattern related to activity, specifically lexical and semantic processing during contextual word learning.
They asked the participants to discover the meaning of a new word from context during silent reading. They were exposed three times to determine brain potentials to novel words. After three exposures, the investigation showed indistinguishable potentials when the words were not shown in a meaningful context. When the words were to be drawn from a meaningful context, the brain patterns were clear and distinguishable.
This solidifies the claim that tasks of this nature can help increase brain activity among students, therefore allowing for more extended periods of focused activity, the activation of inferencing skills, and the creation of connections to prior knowledge. Standardized tests under the NCLB act are designed to test these very skills that are obviously enhanced during second language acquisition. Therefore, the implications of this study are that second language programs allow for a productive learning experience based on increased brain activity, and the activation of essential study skills that are quantifiable through standardized testing.
This study intends to solidify the theory of automation at a cross-linguistic level. This axiom grants that individuals with dual language systems will tend to correlate the sounds, symbols, and meanings of one language to understand the other, hence performing higher-level thinking skills than individuals who only speak one language. In detail, the cross-linguistic interpretation of the automaticity theory is that as when a student learns a second language (L2) and becomes more fluent, there will be a decrease in attention to detail (because the language is already learned). Therefore, the newly-bilingual student will be able to shift his or her attention from the L2 all the way to both L1 and L2. Since the student is at a more comfortable level after learning the language, the theory of automation says that more cognitive energy can be spent making cross-linguistic connections between L1 and L2.
The participants of this quantitative study were 135 Latino students who were bilingual in Spanish and English. The investigators explored the effects of Spanish language alphabetic knowledge, fluency, vocabulary knowledge, and listening comprehension on English reading comprehension. The results revealed the students who were more fluent in both languages had a tendency to take the graphic information that they got from their tasks, and converted it into a linguistic corpus of meaning with more accuracy and speed. Although the sound/symbol connection could have played a part in the students inferencing of meanings, faster English readers benefited more from Spanish vocabulary knowledge than their less fluent counterparts. This study demonstrates the existence of literary skills transfer from the 1st to the 2nd language, as well as limits on such transfer.
There is one significant finding that gives strong implications to the field of education: When a variable was controlled and the L2 component skills were controlled, the study found that Spanish vocabulary knowledge only enhanced the English reading outcomes minimally. When there was open English/Spanish input regardless of level of fluency, orthography and print recognition compensated for the increase in English reading outcomes. The implications to the field of education is based on how a second language or bilingual program should be planned, so that it can serve the dual purpose of helping children learn a foreign language, and also become better in other academic areas. The process of decoding cross-linguistically is evident in this study, yet, the focus of a second language program should then target not only spoken but also written and graphic elements so that the process is complete.
The purpose of this article is to present a case for the implementation of more Foreign Language in the Elementary School (FLES) and Foreign Language Experience (FLEX) programs. Stewart uses both theoretical foundations and recent research to solidify the claims that exposure to a second language enhances Math and reading skills. The article is based on the current pressure of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act by President G.W. Bush, which states that all school should demonstrate achievement in reading and Math via higher scores in state-based standardized testing. Stewart presents FLES, FLEX and second language immersion as an alternative to enhance these areas, and she shows ways in which this alternative might serve as the appropriate solution, according to the information she analyzes.
Stewart proposes that a FLES/FLEX or second language immersion program should be implemented in a sustained way, similarly to the way in which it is used in Canada. She uses the case of French immersion students in Canada as an example, because studies performed in that population show that these students perform higher at standardized testing than students who are not immersed. In this case, the second language is used inclusively to teach different subjects. The second language is introduced in the second or third year at a conversational level, taking later the center stage and a conduit to learn other subjects. The role of the teacher is essential as the introductory conduit to the second language. Therefore, the teachers who will teach the subject in a second language should be certified in the language, or bilingual themselves. This creates the role model persona that student astride to imitate in a cooperative classroom environment. The teacher is more of a guide and a coach, rather than a lecturer.
This is a relevant article for Depth purposes because it specifically lists and explains each of the claims in favor of the implementation of second language programs, and cites the research references which solidify the theories. Among the main reasons that Stewart cites in favor of the FLES/FLEX program, she particularly addresses studies that concluded that children who study a foreign language tend to develop a deeper sense of making connections and understanding context cues due to the consistent exposure to words and patterns that allow them to compare their first language to the second one.
Service, E.; Simola, M.; Metshanheimo, O.; Maury, S. (2002) Bilingual working memory span is affected by language skill European journal of cognitive psychology, 14 (3) 383-408.
The purpose of this study is to establish another possible connection between memory and second language learning. The researchers part from the premise that anything that is not automatic language would enter the thinking stream and trigger and extra amount of activity in the brain, which would surface as an extra load if input in working memory capacity. A foreign or second language is not automatic language, for it needs to be comprehended by the listener, decoded, and connected to current knowledge. This process is presumed to occur with the aid of memory, both episodic and semantic. The participants were college students of English or Psychology. A correlation was tried to be established as to whether their performances as a whole was in itself proportional to their skills and intelligences (linguistic versus scientific).
The methodology involved showing the participants pictures connected to sentences. The first step was to determine the working memory capacity (sustained memory span) of each participant to compare it to their performance after the specific tasks. To do this, participants were asked to memorize the last word of each sentence. These words were either in their natural language, or a second language that the participant mastered. As the tasks expanded and the sentences became longer, the researchers still asked for the last word of each sentence to be memorized, and then asked the participants to call out all of the last words that they memorized as a whole.
When the experiment was conducted in a foreign language, the psychology students group did not perform as good as the English students group in terms of their working memory spans and decision accuracy. From this data, the study tried to correlate whether the difference in performance among the participants was related to phonological short term memory or word processing, but no correlation was found. In another use of the data, the languages and groups were put again to the test to determine if there were any systematic trade-off differences, in other words, does their experience in language learning matter to their ability to recall data and use their working memory capacity. No correlation was found in that aspect either.
The results of the study determined that practice, even in areas that are unknown to certain groups, can still serve as the conduit to awake working memory capacity. In other words, working memory capacity is possessed by all individuals. In the case of foreign language, exposure and consistent practice can still assure the development of the skill, needing less working memory. | https://lingtechguistics.com/2014/08/13/the-benefits-of-second-language-learning-an-annotated-bibliography/ |
We are not all the same: Different memory limits reveal different memory processes.
Young Seon Shin, Summer Sheremata; We are not all the same: Different memory limits reveal different memory processes.. Journal of Vision 2018;18(10):671. doi: 10.1167/18.10.671.
Visual working memory (VWM) maintains stable internal representations, however the amount of information that can be stored varies across individuals. To address the reasons for this variability, it is important to control for task difficulty between low- and high- memory individuals. We measured individuals' memory capacity and then made individualized memory tasks based on the capacity. We found that when set size increases, low memory performance individuals begin to make more errors. This leads to the hypothesis that when set size is high, low memory individuals remember more items at a cost for the precision of each representation. In contrast, high memory individuals selectively maintain items and therefore maintain a high degree of precision regardless of set size. In the present study, we demonstrated resolution in working memory also has different patterns between high and low memory capacity individuals using the continuous report task. We tested the precision of memory representations using individual set sizes defined as easy (K) and hard (K+2) condition. We found high memory capacity individuals have more precise memory representations when required to remember a number of items beyond their capacity. This distinct pattern of memory representation was preserved whether we used the standard mixture model or the swap model. The current study supports our hypothesis that VWM is processed differently based on individuals' memory limitations. Low memory individuals process more items relative to their memory limit resulting poorer resolution representations. | https://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2699661 |
I just have to ask. Where is the awesomeness? More specifically, where is the awesomeness in worship these days?
A number of years ago my husband and I attended an evening Taizé* service on Christ the King Sunday at a local Catholic church. It was filled with awe. From the low lights in the sanctuary, to the beautiful icons filling the chancel and the soft glow of candles everywhere, we were awe-struck the moment we entered the sanctuary. When the service began with liturgical dancers, followed by hauntingly beautiful “spiritual jazz” (as one nun later explained it to me), we knew we were in the presence of God. We longed to experience that awesomeness in our congregation’s beautiful sanctuary.
We were given the chance a few months later. Our pastor let us shape the midweek Lenten services into Taizé services. In trying to recreate what we had experienced, we collected votives in small jars and gathered various religious items from our fellow parishioners. (We called them “items of faith” since Lutherans tend not to own religious icons.) We put together a small group of musicians and readers to lead the services.
Each week the two of us cleared the chancel and choir area up front of the unnecessary furniture and prepared for the service by setting out the candles and displaying the items of faith. After each service we put the everything safely away and replaced the furniture we’d removed. The service brought a new dimension of worship to our congregation. I think we succeeded in bringing some of the awesomeness of God into our congregation’s Lenten worship that year. For my husband and me, it also became our Lenten discipline.
Now, contrast this with what I experienced in church the other Sunday, also in the season of Lent. On that day, a group of children and their grandparents sang a song to the congregation at the beginning of worship. I don’t know the name of it, but every verse ended with the words, “Ooh. Aah. Sock it to me, Jesus.” (What is that supposed to mean, anyway?)
And so I just have to ask. Where is the awesomeness? What are we teaching our children about worship and about whom we are worshiping? Are we teaching them and showing them the awesomeness of God in our worship? Do they really know they are in the presence of our awesome God? Actually, do we really know it?
*Taizé: The style of Christian worship practised by the ecumenical Taizé community in France, characterized by the repetitive singing of simple harmonized tunes, often in various languages, interspersed with readings, prayers, and periods of silence. (definition from www.oxforddictionaries.com)
Kris Brugamyer, of Dickinson, N.D., is a member of the churchwide executive board.
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Photo by Kris Brugamyer. Used with permission. | https://www.womenoftheelca.org/blog/post/awesomeness |
The High Holydays are behind us now. The final blast of the shofar has faded along with the tenth day of the month of Tishri, the month that was announced with repeated notes from that same ancient instrument.· The ten day period of repentance that began with Rosh ha-Shanah has now ended with the conclusion of Yom Kippur. All the preparation and upheaval – emotional and spiritual – have now concluded, as has the physical upheaval which every congregation is obliged to undergo as preparations are made to accommodate congregations several times larger than those who attend regular weekly and other services at their synagogues.
Five days after Yom Kippur the festival of Sukkot begins. By the time the full moon of Tishri appears in the sky, the Torah scrolls are once more wearing their normal covers, having briefly been bedecked in white. Attendance at services – on Shabbat and, more significantly, on the festival day of Sukkot – reverts to more manageable proportions: no marquees or relocations to larger halls are required for the celebration of this biblical event.
It was not always like this. Indeed, the fifteenth day of the seventh month was, for centuries, or millennia perhaps, the most significant moment in this month. Our ancient Israelite ancestors, and numerous other tribal groups and communities, having counted six full moons since the first full moon of the spring, recognised this full moon as one that marked a crucial moment in agricultural the cycle of the year. It was a turning point in the earth’s seasonal patterns: in the northern hemisphere summer would give way to autumn and the earth’s bounty was ready to be gathered. This was a moment of joy for a society entirely dependent on nature for its survival and wellbeing, and their celebrations began once the full moon of the seventh month was sighted.
In the land where our ancient ancestors dwelt, those celebrations were tinged with anxiety. Following the hot summer, there was no chance of planting seeds for the following year’s harvest in land that was hard and parched. Rain was urgently needed to soften the cracked ground – but not too much! A further period of dry weather was necessary to enable the ancient farmers to sow those seeds after which, ideally, the winter rains would fall steadily to enable another year’s crops to grow. For those familiar with the Middle Eastern climate, that is exactly what occurs at this time of the year: at around this time there is rain for several days, followed by a dry period of two or three weeks before the rain begins to fall steadily through the late autumn and winter months. These periods of rain are known as yoreh u-malkosh – erroneously translated in some prayerbooks as ‘autumn and spring rains’ – the actual meaning is ‘early’ and ‘late’, referring specifically to the ideal timing of the precipitation that the Israelite farmers needed.
The full moon of the seventh month was, then, for our ancient ancestors, the most important month of the year. The shofar was sounded when the new moon of that month was sighted to alert the people that they had just fifteen more days to bring their harvest offerings to the Temple in Jerusalem. As they gained a greater understanding of the connection between the growth of crops from the land and the fall of rain from the sky, those who introduced and organised the rituals associated with these celebrations established a connection between the worship offered and the awareness of a need for rain to fall. The symbolism of the lulav which, when shaken, makes a sound like rain (if that is true of the single lulav waved, how much more so in a confined space where hundreds or thousands were shaken in unison?) has clear resonances with the needs of our ancient Israelite ancestors, even if they are rather less to us in the UK in September.
A further ancient theological development was the emergence of an idea that a delay in the arrival of this early autumn rainfall was a form of divine punishment. Once this concept had entered the religious psyche, a ceremony of atonement was introduced to apologise to the Almighty for any misdemeanours and ‘clear the slate’ in order for an appeased Divine power to send the rain at the required time.
Thus the sounding of the shofar on the first day of the seventh month became more than just an announcement that the next full moon was the occasion for the autumn harvest celebration. It also urged the people to be present at their place of worship in ten days’ time to seek atonement for any sins that had been committed in order to guarantee the rain that would ensure that the seeds for next year’s harvest could be planted in soft, freshly watered ground.
We are disconnected from that dependence on and association with the land and the cycle of the seasons. Our ancestors’ religious needs were primarily agricultural; ours, it would seem, are more personal and spiritual. That reality is demonstrated by the emphasis we place on Rosh ha-Shanah and Yom Kippurwhile we pay significantly less attention to the festival of Sukkot. Perhaps, in an age where our relationship with the Earth is becoming more strained, the observance of this ancient harvest festival might remind us of the appreciation we should show to the planet that supports us. | http://ljoldwebsite.org/written-word-resources/45-written-word-and-resources/834-sukkot-2013.html |
Prior to the launch of its new annual lecture series--beginning at 6pm--the AWS is hosting a VIP Reception and Fundraiser to celebrate!
Funds raised will support a new scholarship fund for undergrad performing and visual arts students and the organization’s continuing work. Join AWS members, Howard University arts and theatre faculty and administrators, and the director of Pittsburgh’s August Wilson House, Paul Ellis Esq.(Wilson's nephew), at this event, featuring a live ticket auction to Ford’s Theatre’s upcoming production of Fences, performances by Howard theatre students, a live jazz band, and heavy hors d’oeuvres. Space is limited; tickets $100 (includes admission to lecture).
THE LECTURE SERIES AND TONIGHT'S LECTURE
The August Wilson Society is proud to announce the September 19, 2019, launch of the "August Wilson’s Ground" Lecture Series (AWGLS), an annual forum whose mission is to advance August Wilson Studies by offering new critical treatments and fresh perspectives on his American Century Cycle plays and by encouraging ongoing informed discussions on the enduring relevance of his life and literary legacy.
The very first lecture in this historic series will be delivered by Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson, Associate Professor and Chair of American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. The title of her talk is “Cornbread, Biscuits, and Coca-Cola: Foods and Food Practices in August Wilson’s American Century Cycle Plays.” Her discussion will focus upon Wilson’s use of material culture—especially foods and food practices—to suggest a deeper look into what Sandy Alexandre calls “a culture of significance” or that which is revealed when we examine the relationships between black people and their material possessions. Because physical objects of a culture give us a better understanding and appreciation for the multifaceted lives of the people who interact with these objects as well as insight into the nonmaterial culture—that is, ideas, beliefs, habits and values of a people, we have a greater potential to see more, hear more, smell more, in the narrative. She asserts that, by considering what is not thought about, though often readily in plain view, we exercise the hidden potential found in the material artifacts to tell us more about black lives.
Each year, AWGLS will host a nationally acclaimed speaker who will “ground” their talk in one of the multiple disciplines featured in Wilson’s work and who will in engaging ways contextualize their comments within the present moment! AWGLS will be held at different sites throughout the country each year—from theatre spaces to classrooms to community auditoriums. | https://www.eventbrite.com/e/august-wilsons-ground-annual-lecture-series-event-tickets-65500903967?fbclid=IwAR3acvxxGUAv1faVlwsCj25hrs0rnPO07I8NiWAl_IMMY8euB1gmZrMtYpE |
Till’s family donated the casket to the NMAAHC in 2009, seeking to preserve the item after Till’s body was exhumed from Chicago’s Burr Oak Cemetery when the investigation into his murder was reopened in 2005. Of the decision to donate the casket, Simeon Wright, Till’s cousin who was asleep in the same room the night Bryant and Milam came and took Till away, commented that, “Some people would say this is just a wooden box, scuffed up on the outside and stained on the inside. But this very particular box tells a story, lots of stories. And by sending it to the Smithsonian’s African-American museum we – Emmett’s few remaining relatives – are doing what we can to make sure those stories get told long after we’re gone” (Smithsonian News Release, August 27, 2009). As the plans for the museum took shape, director Lonnie G. Bunch III and the curators worried about the propriety of displaying the casket, but ultimately decided that this material reminder of the brutality of white supremacy would be an important part of the institution’s interpretation of American and African-American history.
The visitors who passed through the memorial on the Wednesday afternoon in October when I visited were quiet and reverent as they stood before the white silk-lined pine box that had held his body or sat on a pew at the back of the small room. I was surprised and moved by the fact that it is so small – not the shockingly small size of an infant’s casket, but not that of an adult – and could not help but think about the promise of life ahead of him taken away by those men who were so invested in racial dominance. I found it difficult to stand there for long, with the casket and all it represents the sole focus of attention.
Taken together, the display of the material artifact of Till’s casket, the work of interpretation in the memorial to his life, and McClary’s prayerful watch over the room highlight the expected and unexpected ways the NMAAHC features religion as part of the story of African-American history and culture. The museum’s curators and exhibit designers have attended to religion in varied forms and institutional contexts consistently throughout the three floors of History Galleries, and discussions of African-American religious life appear in the Community and Culture Galleries. The sheer amount of material culture on display in the museum in general and representing African-American religious life specifically is a powerful testament to black presence in America from its very beginnings. Exhibits on the floor focusing on “Slavery and Freedom, 1400-1877” present the material culture of religious life under slavery, often highlighting continuity of African traditions, as in the display of a cloth accompanied by pins, shards of glass, a cowrie shell, and buttons found under the floorboards in the attic of a house in Newport, Rhode Island and believed to be components of an nkisi, used by BaKongo people for power and protection. This section also features items such as a drum from the Sea Islands and glass beads from a burial site in Virginia, both representing connections to West and Central African religious practices.
The bulk of the material artifacts related to African-American religious history on display throughout the museum underscore the centrality of Christianity and churches to black life and culture. The exhibits bring to life the physical infrastructure of black churches and denominations through sections showing a church pew, money-box, and land deed from Richard Allen’s Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, dedicated in Philadelphia in 1794, to other parts of the museum featuring artifacts from Baptist and Methodist churches founded after emancipation and representing all regions of the country. A display case with a kneeler, votive candle stand, and information about the Sisters of the Holy Family and St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans points to the experiences of black Christians within white-controlled churches.
The personal artifacts of African-American Christian life on display at the museum are often powerful and poignant. Bibles and printed material dominate, but the connections to individual lives, animate them in unique ways. One can see a hymnal Harriet Tubman used, and Bibles belonging to Nat Turner, Hattie McDaniel, and Second Lieutenant Emily J. T. Perez, a West Point graduate who was killed in Iraq in 2006, as well as the Collins family Bible, purchased in 1869 by Richard Collins of Wilcox County, Alabama, and in which he wrote the record of births in his family, beginning with his own in 1844. A slate notebook belonging to AME Bishop Benjamin Tucker Tanner and a cast iron book stand belonging to AME Zion minister Florence Spearing Randolph in the galleries on Community emphasize the connections among religion, education, and activism. A metalwork cross made by blacksmith Solomon Williams, enslaved on Oakland Plantation in Natchitoches, Louisiana, to mark his wife Laide’s grave and the journal of Rev. Alexander Glennie, rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Waccamaw, South Carolina open to a page listing marriages of enslaved people points to the importance of religious ritual throughout people’s lives.
Having just published a book about black religious movements that were founded in the context of early twentieth-century urbanization and migration, I was pleased to see this aspect of religious diversity represented in the museum’s exhibits. Visitors can see such items as a hand-made banner from the 1936 Righteous Government political program of Father Divine’s Peace Mission, numerous objects from the Nation of Islam, including a miniature Qu’ran belonging to Elijah Muhammad and a Fruit of Islam uniform and cap, and artifacts from Black Hebrews, such as a prayer shawl and shofar from Rabbi Capers Funnye’s Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago. Other aspects of African-American Muslim life in America are also represented in the museum, focusing primarily on the work and legacy of Elijah Muhammad’s son Warith Deen Mohammed. The curators’ work to include people, communities, and events in African-American religious life for whom no objects are available is admirable, and they do so most often through artistic renderings and text panels.
The museum’s interpretive frame as represented in text panels accompanying objects on display is often less compelling than the powerful artifacts demand. There are numerous panels throughout the museum with headings like “The Church,” “Religion,” “The Black Church,” “The Role of the African-American Church.” In fact, I sometimes had to refer to the visitor’s map to remind myself of the time period and topic of a particular gallery because of the repetition in these unimaginative headings and the fact that they often accompanied similar church pews, stained glass windows, or bibles from a black Protestant congregation. By the third or fourth time seeing such a heading in a museum that is so densely packed with objects, statues, video monitors, and sound, it seems to me that a visitor would be less likely to stop at yet another display case promising a reflection on “the role of the church.” One hopes that the curators incorporate more complex stories in whatever rotating exhibitions they plan in other galleries in the museum and take the opportunity to attend more fully to religious diversity and engage thematic questions that arise from the study of African-American religious history and move beyond the representation of church institutions.
Fortunately, visitors will encounter aspects of African-American religious life in unexpected places throughout the exhibits that give a broader sense of the places and people involved in this history. The story of R. H. Boyd and the National Baptist Publishing Board receives extended attention in a section of the Community galleries on “Making a Way Out of No Way,” and visitors will learn about Boyd’s vision for African Americans to produce their own religious materials and publications. The oratory of black preachers is represented in a section of the Culture galleries devoted to the spoken word and, on the day I visited, a large crowd was gathered around a monitor playing clips of sermons. While both examples I cite have connections to black church institutions, their integration into thematic displays on business and oratory opens up the possibility of interpretive nuance that the repeated headings of “the black church” close down.
The ceremony marking the museum’s opening in September 2016 concluded with President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama helping to ring the bell of Williamsburg, Virginia’s First Baptist Church, formed in 1776 by a group of enslaved and free blacks, that had been removed from its steeple and transported to Washington, D.C. for the event. They were joined by 99-year-old Ruth Odom Bonner, whose father Elijah Odom had been born into slavery in Mississippi and went on to become a doctor and businessman, and three younger generations of her family. Reflecting back on this opening event and the museum’s exhibitions from a post-election vantage point, the presence of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in a place of prominence on the National Mall seems more important than ever. With a president-elect whose rhetoric and platform promote a stereotype of black America as an undifferentiated mass of criminals and crime victims trapped in “the inner cities,” the museum’s depictions of the variety of African-American history and culture, with religion as an important component, is a matter of urgency. With the president-elect’s closest advisors comprised of people who promote racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, homophobic, misogynist, white nationalist views, the museum’s insistence on the interconnectedness of all our American histories, as represented in the motto, “A People’s Journey – Nation’s Story,” stands to face significant challenges, which makes its work all the more important.
Judith Weisenfeld is the Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion at Princeton University. She is the author of Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929-1949(University of California Press, 2007) and her most recent project is the forthcoming New World A Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity During the Great Migration (New York University Press, 2016). She can be followed @JLWeisenfeld. | https://sacredmattersmagazine.com/religion-on-display-at-the-national-museum-of-african-american-history-and-culture/?shared=email&msg=fail |
Campbell, H. (ed.). (2013). Digital religion: Understanding religious practice in new media worlds. New York: Routledge.
In this age informed by social media, religious self-expression online has become an accepted part of religious identity and practice. For example, through the Net, Jesus has his own Facebook page, the Buddha tweets, and worshipers can download a variety of religious mobile phone apps that facilitate praying toward Mecca or connecting with the Pope. Digital Religion: Understanding religious practice in new media worlds, is a book that attests to a growing interdisciplinary approach to the study of religion and new media. Presented as a scholarly apologetic for the emerging subfield within Internet, media and culture studies, the text maps out key research and prominent themes, provides case studies from a variety of fields, and stands as an interdisciplinary framework for the study of digital religion.
Heidi Campbell, editor of this book, attributes the fluid, flexible nature of the Internet to having created a landscape where new forms of religiosity can take place online. Similarly, the fluid dynamic of the Net has facilitated a reconceptualization of the study of digital religion toward examining religion not only as it is performed and articulated in cyberspace, but also how digital media and cyberspaces are being shaped by religious practice. To illustrate, the study of early cyberchurches reveals a focus on emulating aspects of offline church services by using technologies, such as podcasts, to offer sermons, singing, and limited engagement between members of a congregation. But with the rise of the virtual world, religious groups are now embracing, as well as shaping a variety of technologies, such as Second Life, to create online experiences that offer interactive worship via avatars, or "kosher" cell phones that block access to "indecent" material.
Digital Religion explores six central areas of inquiry: ritual, identity, community, authority, authenticity, and how religion can be understood in the digital realm. The text also includes a chapter on ethical issues that one might confront when employing research methods and practices in this subfield. Thematic chapters are partnered with case studies that provide varying methodological approaches, and notwithstanding the variety of disciplinary foci in this book, the reader will note the interconnectivity of the studies as themes overlap from chapter to chapter. For example, questions of authenticity are addressed in the chapters on ritual. In his case study, Heinz Scheifinger considers how the Hindu ritual, puja, practiced online can constitute a valid form of religious expression. In the view of some Hindu worshipers, "there is no reason why deity cannot inhabit cyberspace" (p. 124). Not only can worshipers connect with deity online, but they claim that "because gods and goddesses cannot be affected by impurity they can actually have a positive impact in cyberspace" (p. 125). Louise Connelly's case study of virtual Buddhist meditation also includes a discussion on the authenticity of this online ritual. The author argues that even though the virtual ritual lacks aspects of the traditional Buddhist sensory experience, "seeing is part of the embodied experience of feeling" (p. 132). Because the purpose of ritual is to gain greater understanding and spiritual awakening, she states that virtual artifacts can contribute toward this aim.
Authority is another theme woven throughout the chapters on identity, community, authenticity and religion. The Internet, that allows for the consumer to also be the producer, facilitates a decentralization of knowledge that harbors the potential to undermine religious authority. Studies suggest, however, that the Internet can facilitate both the weakening and strengthening of religious authority by creating a forum, not only for conflict but also, for understanding and accommodation. In his case study, Charting frontiers of online religious communities, Oren Golan defines a religious enclave "as a cultural system that ensures insiders will conform to the collective's worldview" (p. 155). While religious community practices foster inner solidarity, parameters of conforming can simultaneously be monitored by religious authorities. Golan reports that in the case of Chabad, an ultra-orthodox Jewish group, the community is strengthened through web presence and by select religious authorities who actually promote its use. The Internet is considered an outreach tool that spreads its world view by highlighting the group's religious practices and advancing godliness, "our [Internet outreach] was set up strictly to deal with the outside world ... technology is here for a purpose, for something positive" (p. 158). In contrast to other ultra-orthodox Jewish communities who prefer to reign in Internet access, Chabad's Internet use has gained increasing support from its institutional leaders.
In terms of further research, Campbell suggests that, even though the separation between "religion online" and "online religion" has become increasingly blurred, the distinction is still a useful construct. (See Helland, 2000). But Campbell further argues that this demarcation does not address the "third space" where lived religious practice and digital culture meet. She states that this hybridized and fluid context requires new logic that evokes unique forms of meaning-making. Religion that is taking place in a digital environment becomes informed by new media ideology which can alter, not only practice, but also the meaning-making process itself.
It is unfortunate that Campbell does not explore in more depth the question of media ideology as another lens from which to examine emerging forms of religion that might not fit within the conceptual parameters of the third space. Kopimism, for example, is a religion that is not just informed by new media ideology — new media ideology is the religion. Founded principally by Isak Gerson in 2010, Kopimism is a legitimate missionary ministry whose dogma is Internet file-sharing. The congregation's value system is based on the axioms that the Internet is holy and that all knowledge is sacred, therefore the circulation of knowledge and the act of copying is also sacred. Individual pastoral care and confession are conducted with Kopimist priests, or Ops, who are morally obligated to assist upon request. Digital worship services take place via compatible internet protocol to ensure that those in attendance can communicate. This is followed by the holiest act of Kopimism which is for participants to copy, remix and distribute as much information as possible among each other. The final part of the worship service is to engage the public in the practice of Kopimistic values. The meeting ends with all members submitting "thx" to their congregation. (See Kopimistsamfundet.org, 2013). Kopimism represents a transcendence of the third space beyond "where lived religious practice and digital culture meet" toward lived digital culture as religion. In the third space, "digital" may stand in for previous forms of religious practice and become a means of mediation, but in the Church of Kopimism mediation itself is an act of worship.
In his blog response for Network for New Media, Religion and Digital Culture Studies, Kyong James Cho critiques Campbell for defining digital religion as "a bit too all encompassing" (Cho, 2013). Cho quotes Campbell's description of digital religion as "the technological and cultural space that is evoked when we talk about how online and offline religious spheres have become blended or integrated" (p. 4). Kopimism is an example of how this conceptualization of digital religion is not broad enough for this emerging area of inquiry. This new religion calls for a reframing from digital religion to the digital as religion. In the last chapter, Stewart Hoover, contributor to Digital Religion, correctly positions the research and trajectory of the book as "a valuable and generative start," because future investigation of religion and new media will likely lead us through the third space and beyond. The digital as religion is perhaps the brave new spiritual frontier.
Cho, Kyong James. (March 14, 2013). "Good Reads: More reflections on "Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds." Network for New Media, Religion and Digital Cultural Studies. «http://digitalreligion.tamu.edu/blog/thu-03142013-1327/good-reads-more-reflections-%E2%80%9Cdigital-religion-understanding-religious» Retrieved August 12, 2013.
Helland, C. (2000). "Online-religion/religion-online and virtual communities" in J.K. Hadden and D. E. Cowan (eds.) Religion on the Internet: Research prospects and promises. New York: JAI Press, 205-23.
Kopimistsamfundet.org: The first church of Kopimism for the U.S.:: Database be with you. «http://kopimistsamfundet.se/english/» Retrieved August 13, 2013.
Laura Rutter Strickling received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Her research includes Sociocultural Linguistics, Intercultural Communication, and Latter-day Saint Women Studies. She is currently the assistant director of qualitative inquiry for Center for Application and Innovation Research in Education. | http://hyperrhiz.io/hyperrhiz10/book-media-reviews/the-third-space-and-beyond-h-campbell-digital-religion.html |
If you were to join us at the Capitol Hill Baptist Church, in Washington, D C, for our average Sunday morning service, what would you notice about our music? I’m not sure, but I would like to point out several choices that we’ve made, that I think contributes to the healthy constraint and expression of music in our congregation.
1) PRIORITY
Nowhere in the New Testament are local churches commanded to have “background” music during times of mingling or taking up the offering. Though the redeemed will form a choir in eternity, some Christians listening to a subset of their number sing is nowhere commanded or exampled in New Testament churches. Performed music is not commanded; however, congregational singing is.
For us, this means the question of whether there is performed music in the service is a question of whether it edifies the congregation, whether that edification is worth the time taken up in preparation, and taken from other elements of the service when it’s performed. We give a clear priority to spending time in the service singing together, considering what will help us to do that better.
2) SEATING
One of the most striking things you might notice would be that our building was designed originally in a way that did not focus the congregation’s gaze down the long aisle of a rectangular auditorium to a pulpit and platform at the far end of the room. Rather, the building has a main hall that is about quarter of a circle, both on main floor and in its balcony. When the old “Sunday School Auditorium” is added by opening large doors, our congregation takes the shape a full semi-circle (and a little more).
This can be challenging for the preacher, but for the congregation and its singing, this more circular set-up is wonderful and encouraging. We are in some senses visibly singing to each other when we sing. If you have a building that doesn’t encourage this as much, you can still bring up the idea of the goodness of looking around and singing to each other, as well as to the Lord, when you sing.
3) ARCHITECTURE
We’re also helped by having an old building, one that’s particularly friendly to a congregational focus. Often, more modern facilities are more like a TV studio, with sound-dampening techniques used to quiet the sound of the congregation, while at the same time making sure all the sound from “up front” can easily be heard by everyone. But our older architecture—especially the flat ceiling!—means that the whole congregation can more easily be heard. This encourages congregational singing. If your church has a building that’s nothing like this, consider addressing some of these issues to help your congregation be able to hear each other better (for example: you could remove sound-absorbing acoustical tiles and carpet)
4) NOTES
We generally print both the words and the music of the hymns and songs we sing. This means the 10–20% of the congregation who can read music can learn new songs more quickly. And their singing helps the rest of the congregation learn the music after them. Families may use the music to help them later that day play the hymn on a piano or a guitar, so the music becomes more embedded into the life of the church.
5) PARTS
We also prefer songs and hymns that have good harmony for the congregation to sing. Like the ability to read music, most of the congregation may not know how to sing alto, tenor, or bass. But some will. And others will learn from them. We tend to sing the first stanza without parts, in unison, to help anyone who may not know the melody. Then, on the second stanza, those of us who are able will break into parts. This gives a depth and richness to the sound of the congregation’s singing that reinforces the words.
6) A CAPPELLA
Often, we’ll sing a cappella—without any instrumental accompaniment—on the final stanza. Such singing used to be more common among Protestants. If we were in the normal Sunday gathering of John Calvin in 16th century Geneva, or C. H. Spurgeon in 19th century London, there would have been no instruments accompanying the singing of the congregation. We don’t understand that the use of such accompaniment is wrong, but we do understand the power of unaccompanied human voices singing together. The final stanza of a hymn is often a climactic time where the words “pop” as the congregation hears only their own voices singing the words to the Lord and to each other. This is perhaps the most single commented-upon aspect of our service, at least by the visitors who speak to me afterwards.
7) LEADERS
It’s important that the pastors visibly sing. We shouldn’t be coolly disengaged from the service, working on our remarks, chatting with someone else, waiting in some room “off stage” to appear. We’re with the congregation as those who are most fundamentally one of them, needing God’s Word as it is ministered to us throughout the whole service, including the music. We get the wonderful opportunity to lead by example.
8) ACCOMPANIMENT
Mere accompaniment often works best for facilitating congregational singing. By “mere,” I mean simple arrangements, modest volume, and limited instrumentation. The musical excellence we aim for should be more in the congregation than in the instrumentalists or vocalists who lead or accompany our singing. We only want instruments that will help us to be able to sing. We’re not looking for them to rival—and certainly not to replace—the corporate singing of the whole congregation. Whether an electric band or an organ, a choir or a soloist, these elements are, at best, the seasoning which brings out the flavor of the congregation’s singing. They should never overpower it.
9) SELECTION
We deliberately want to use old and new hymns. We want psalms set in various musical styles. All we ask is that all of what we sing has true words and singable music! On that latter point, there’s often some subjective disagreement about which songs are in fact singable—especially before we first try them. But that the songs should be singable, no one disagrees.
Furthermore, we want to sing songs that fit the sermon text. If we’re going to be hearing about heaven, we want to prepare our hearts by singing about heaven. If we’re going to be thinking about the atonement, we’ll sing by confessing our sins, our need, and God’s provision for us in Christ. The songs should be selected to fit the sermon.
CONCLUSION
These are nine aspects of our singing that I might point out to you, if you stood next to me on Sunday morning. I hope this article—and the one before it—is helpful to you as you think about this wonderful ministry of music that your local church is called to have. | https://www.9marks.org/article/9-choices-for-a-healthy-music-ministry/ |
In the early 1990s, some forgotten soul on the internet coined the term “meatspace” to refer to the offline area that most of us think of as “the real world.” The term has always been only half a joke: It’s funny to think about the real world as secondary to cyberspace, but many people really do operate this way, spending the greater part of their life efforts in digital realms. As computers and smartphones have become better and more readily available, and as virtual meetings have become more common in both professional and social settings, the idea that meatspace and cyberspace are rough equivalents has become increasingly plausible; over time, many of the activities that chiefly took place in the former, like shopping and working and talking to other people, have slowly but inexorably become virtualized.
In imagining the effects of COVID-19 on this dynamic, it’s useful to think about virtualization as a kind of human migration. Until now, this migration has mostly been driven by pull factors: When online interactions seem more fun or more convenient or cheaper than real-world interactions, people virtualize their activities. Novel coronavirus, on the other hand, is a major, global, and sudden push factor: Rather than make virtual spaces better, it has made meatspace much, much worse. The virtualization that accompanies this retreat from physical space will find a virtual space that is not fully ready for what it is being asked to do. In this crisis moment, there are two paths forward: Either virtual space can quickly be adapted to serve new needs, or it can be abided temporarily until meatspace comes back online. This is a dilemma facing workplaces, schools—and houses of worship.
Since the first U.S. confirmed case of novel coronavirus less than two months ago, synagogues, along with other houses of worship, have massively disrupted services in order to stem the spread of the virus. In epicenters of the outbreak, like New Rochelle, New York, government officials have ordered synagogues closed, sending even major events like a bar mitzvah to videoconference. Even when not required to do so, however, many other synagogues have preemptively canceled services and suspended schools “out of an abundance of caution.” To compensate, many synagogues have ramped up their streaming options. On Purim this week, for instance, Rabbi Dan Margulies of Riverdale Minyan presided over a megillah reading featuring 60 to 80 physical and an additional 100 virtual participants, many of the latter sitting in front of their webcams in full costume. These improvised solutions are good for the moment, but before the novelty of these solutions wears off, we need to ask what is gained from the virtualization of ritual, and whether the benefits involved outweigh their large and potentially permanent risks.
*
The dilemma of virtual religious congregation is not a purely logistical problem. Whereas offices are for working and schools are for learning, most of the purpose of going to synagogue is simply to be present: to be present with others, and to be present for the performance of ritual. For offices and schools, physical presence is a means; for religious spaces, presence is the goal. Whether that goal is reached with a virtual substitute is emphatically not just a question of resources and convenience; it is, instead, a referendum on the limits of virtual presence itself. Despite the internet’s extensive religious infrastructure, this is not a referendum that most religious communities were prepared to have. As religious communities choose their paths, it is worth looking at how this wave of virtualization is different from what has already taken place.
Virtual ritual spaces are as old as the internet itself. While a few of these spaces are exclusively online—a Second Life synagogue here, a virtual reality church there—the vast majority of religious virtual spaces exist only to supplement some real-world experience. Online text-study programs, like Project Zug, have gained in popularity in recent years, but are still a long way from replacing the beit midrash as the locus of Torah study. Many synagogues livestream their services, hoping to accommodate both aging members and those too timid to set foot inside a real synagogue, but despite their growing popularity these broadcasts have never seriously competed with in-person attendance. This is not for lack of trying; in the internet’s three decades there have been countless attempts to turn corners of the internet into the primary meeting spaces for religious communities. While these experiments sometimes succeed at small scale, they have never posed a serious threat to real-world spaces (although the internet itself may be making people less religious). Despite the many real-world experiences that have consumed by virtual equivalents, ritual gathering has remained a stubbornly real-world phenomenon.
This stubbornness has often been reinforced by Jewish law. Long before the internet, Rabbi Eliezer Waldenburg (d. 2006) strongly rejected the possibility of constituting a minyan through radio transmissions, as did Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (d. 1995). Even the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who championed the use of every manner of broadcasting technology, told his followers that the requirement to hear the megillah read on Purim needed to be fulfilled in person. More recently, the tens of thousands of men participating in the siyyum hashas at the Met Life stadium were instructed that one should not respond “amen” to any blessings heard over the loudspeakers.
Today, there exist a range of opinions on the viability of virtual gatherings, but even the most permissive want some number of people—at least a minyan’s worth—to meet in person, even if most are participating online. The Conservative movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards has ruled that a person may recite Kaddish while connected to a synagogue via a live feed—but only if someone in the synagogue is reciting it at the same time. This arrangement makes the virtual contingent resemble nothing so much as the women’s balcony of an Orthodox synagogue: present but dependent, more onlooker than participant, unable to constitute a quorum in and of itself.
But what if the physical option is forcibly removed? Traumatic communal experiences—especially migrations—often lead to “ritual transfer,” and some of these transfers have landed rituals in virtual space. The Dalai Lama, for example, has strongly leaned into the power of virtual community for the approximately 150,000 Tibetans living in exile; a 2014 Kalachakra ceremony, documented by Dr. Christopher Helland at Dalhousie University, was carefully livestreamed specifically for this purpose, and Tibetan Buddhist monks are working to create virtual-reality experiences of religious sites that most practitioners will never get to see in person. Helland has confirmed to me that the Dalai Lama sometimes expressly tells virtual congregants that their telepresence is no different from the real thing.
Despite the Dalai Lama’s assertion, virtual ritual spaces certainly don’t feel like the real thing. In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, one thing that has become apparent is that religious meetups involve a lot of touching, both of other people and of communal objects. Synagogues have had to ask people not to kiss prayer books or Torah scrolls. In Mecca, authorities have banned supplicants from touching the Kaaba shrine. Some Catholic churches have removed holy water from public fonts, others have suspended the practice of drinking wine from a single chalice and in others the Communion wafer is being given by hand (as opposed to being placed on the tongue) or not at all. It is hard to imagine communal religious experiences that are not tactile.
In the moment, the exile from physical ritual spaces will likely give virtual spaces a boost, and many people will be generous with their online presence, knowing that these virtual spaces are trying to fill a physical hole. Some people may find a level of community in virtual spaces that they previously had not thought possible. Eventually, though, real-world meetings will resume; some activities will return to the real world, but others may remain virtual. With regards to the synagogue, we are likely to find that the difference between can’t go to services and don’t want to go to services might become a fair bit more complicated. In the face of this impending and potentially permanent transformation, there is a choice to be made: Is physical presence an integral part of religious community, or is that just the way things have been done so far?
*
Judaism, as with other religions, has a tendency to be defined by the ways in which it doesn’t “get with the times.” The Torah scroll is special because everyone else moved on to books and Jews didn’t. The grogger used to be an ordinary siren. Shabbat became defined as a day without electronics because rabbis long ago prohibited the use of electricity on that day.
Much as the Conservative movement’s decision to allow congregants to drive to the synagogue on Saturdays transformed the geography of Conservative communities, the use of ritual spaces that are primarily virtual is bound to transform any community that sanctions them. If religious leaders bow to pressure to sanctify virtual space, even as a stopgap measure, we may see a new attrition in physical attendance, which in turn will motivate the services themselves to be more appealing to virtual audiences, which in turn will make physical attendees wonder why they bothered to show up in person. These services will undoubtedly be more accessible—but they may also be shallower. If, on the other hand, religious leaders insist on the distinctiveness of physical gathering at a time when there are both long-term and acute pressures to move to virtual space, physical space will quickly become a defining feature of religious community.
This latter path is, I think, the right way to proceed. Virtual communities, despite their many good qualities, cannot replace all of the functionality of physical ones; in fact, as Sherry Turkle noted almost a decade ago, virtual communities can actually make users feel more isolated. Despite the pervasiveness of this problem, especially among the young, most religious communities have spent little time articulating anything more than vague positions about why the internet can be dangerous and why its use should be curtailed. In the present global crisis, in which so many religious institutions have turned to virtual refuges, there is an opportunity for these communities to give full-throated articulations of what it means to be present in virtual space, and what it would mean—if it is possible at all—for those spaces to retain a modicum of sanctity.
David Zvi Kalman is a Fellow in Residence at the Shalom Hartman Institute and the founder of an independent Jewish publishing house. | https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/shul-in-the-time-of-coronavirus |
Late Friday evening, the Supreme Court, in South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, issued emergency relief suspending California’s broad ban on indoor religious services. The Court ruled that California was “enjoined from enforcing the . . . prohibition on indoor worship services . . . pending disposition of the petition for a writ of certiorari.” The order is limited: Relief was “denied with respect to the [25%] percentage capacity limitations” and denied with respect to the prohibition on singing and chanting during indoor services,” although the Court left the door open to hear any “new evidence . . . that the State is not applying the percentage capacity limitations or the prohibition on singing and chanting in a generally applicable manner.” This lifts some of the most stringent restrictions on religious services in the country. Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito wanted to grant broader relief on these fronts; Justices Barrett and Kavanaugh thought the evidentiary record was too unclear.
The Court was yet again divided on these issues, but not entirely along the same lines as in prior cases. Chief Justice Roberts, who dissented when the Court ruled against Andrew Cuomo’s restrictions in November, reiterated his view that courts should defer to elected officials and public-health experts, but thought that California had gone too far this time: “The State’s present determination — that the maximum number of adherents who can safely worship in the most cavernous cathedral is zero — appears to reflect not expertise or discretion, but instead insufficient appreciation or consideration of the interests at stake.” Justice Gorsuch argued that California was overgeneralizing the risks of religious services:
California . . . insists that religious worship is so different that it demands especially onerous regulation. The State offers essentially four reasons why: It says that religious exercises involve (1) large numbers of people mixing from different households; (2) in close physical proximity; (3) for extended periods; (4) with singing . . . California errs to the extent it suggests its four factors are always present in worship, or always absent from the other secular activities its regulations allow. Nor has California sought to explain why it cannot address its legitimate concerns with rules short of a total ban . . .
on further inspection, the singing ban may not be what it first appears. It seems California’s powerful entertainment industry has won an exemption. So, once more, we appear to have a State playing favorites during a pandemic, expending considerable effort to protect lucrative industries (casinos in Nevada; movie studios in California) while denying similar largesse to its faithful. . . . Even if a full congregation singing hymns is too risky, California does not explain why even a single masked cantor cannot lead worship behind a mask and a plexiglass shield. Or why even a lone muezzin may not sing the call to prayer from a remote location inside a mosque as worshippers file in.
Gorsuch concluded:
[California’s] “temporary” ban on indoor worship has been in place since August 2020, and applied routinely since March. California no longer asks its movie studios, malls, and manicurists to wait. And one could be forgiven for doubting its asserted timeline. Government actors have been moving the goalposts on pandemic-related sacrifices for months, adopting new benchmarks that always seem to put restoration of liberty just around the corner. As this crisis enters its second year — and hovers over a second Lent, a second Passover, and a second Ramadan — it is too late for the State to defend extreme measures with claims of temporary exigency, if it ever could. Drafting narrowly tailored regulations can be difficult. But if Hollywood may host a studio audience or film a singing competition while not a single soul may enter California’s churches, synagogues, and mosques, something has gone seriously awry.
Justice Kagan, leading the three liberals in dissent, argued once again that the Court should defer to scientists rather than focus closely on the unequal treatment of religion, and warned of dire public-health consequences:
I fervently hope that the Court’s intervention will not worsen the Nation’s COVID crisis. But if this decision causes suffering, we will not pay. Our marble halls are now closed to the public, and our life tenure forever insulates us from responsibility for our errors. That would seem good reason to avoid disrupting a State’s pandemic response. But the Court forges ahead regardless, insisting that science-based policy yield to judicial edict.
This will likely not be the last of these cases to come to the Court. But for now, the churches, synagogues, and mosques of California may open their doors again, at least a little. | https://americasnewshub.com/usa/the-supreme-court-just-ordered-california-to-reopen-churches-national-review/ |
Which Joe gave his name to ‘sloppy joes’? We look at five interesting sandwiches and their lexical origins.
Definition of hymn in English:
hymn
noun
1A religious song or poem, typically of praise to God or a god.‘a Hellenistic hymn to Apollo’
religious song, anthem, song of praise, canticle, chorale, psalm, carol, chantantiphon, introit, doxology, spiritual, paean, plainsonglay, miserereView synonyms
- ‘Author of five books, he has also compiled an equal number, including ‘Arul Maalai’, containing devotional hymns and articles on religion.’
- ‘Therefore, in the long run, the descriptive praise of the hymns becomes praise that is only response to a human call to praise.’
- ‘Rig-Veda Samhita is the oldest of the four vedas and consists of 1028 hymns praising the ancient gods.’
- ‘All that the documents talk about are pesah banquets with wine, good food, and hymns of praise to God.’
- ‘These might be orchestral interludes or the religious hymns, but they form more contemplative passages, balancing the dialogue.’
- ‘They should be ‘words’ that can't be easily guessed, like acronyms referring to hymns, praise songs, or verses.’
- ‘Sage Agasthya taught Lord Rama the Aditya Hridayam, the hymn to Lord Surya when he felt fatigued during the battle with Ravana.’
- ‘She had a consistent gratitude for God's goodness; many of her poems and hymns capture her sense of the presence of God.’
- ‘The Rig Veda is a collection of hymns praising the gods and glorifying the conquests and the heroics of the aristocratic Aryan cult.’
- ‘As you think about Jesus' goodness to you in prayer today, try writing your own hymn or prayer of praise.’
- ‘In Adhyatma Ramayana, Narada, in his hymn to Sri Rama, says that males of all species are Rama and females are Sita.’
- ‘It is a massive hymn in the Byzantine Rite, in praise of the Virgin Mary.’
- ‘It is this priority of visions, hymns, and poems that leads me to the Apocalypse of John for this second study.’
- ‘Poems and hymns of the Hebrew people are expressed in Psalms.’
- ‘Every day, take one of the hymns of praise in Revelation and make it a central part of your prayer.’
- ‘In all four Vedas, there are references to women ascetics reciting Vedic hymns and even creating mantras.’
- ‘What I couldn't do then and couldn't do for thirty years was the first line of the first poem, the hymn to Aphrodite.’
- ‘Wine and even drunkenness are frequent images in medieval hymns and other religious poems.’
- ‘This hymn praises the Savior who stands over all creation and through whom all things, tapanta, are created and all things are held together.’
- ‘It sounds uncommonly like a means of mass-producing aesthetic intensities of the sort hymned at the close of Pater's Renaissance.’
- ‘During that powerful event, Sri Rudram, a much-revered propitiatory hymn to Lord Siva from the Yajur Veda, was chanted in unison 1,331 times.’
- 1.1A formal song sung during Christian worship, typically by the whole congregation.
- ‘I used to feel good when I went to the local Congregational Church and sang hymns.’
- ‘The congregation also sang the hymns Lord Of All Hopefulness and Abide With Me, and heard clips of Peel speaking in a variety of radio broadcasts.’
- ‘The conference opened with selected hymns designed to encourage hymn singing in Nigerian churches.’
- ‘So often congregation members take sides over how to offer Christian education or when to sing a hymn.’
- ‘In the structure of the hymn, praise is response in the sense of being a congregational response to a call to worship.’
- ‘That passage is said in the context of a hymn of praise.’
- ‘When Humayan arrived, Guru Angad and the congregation were absorbed in singing religious hymns.’
- ‘A few feet away, a group of priests, nuns and Protestant ministers sang hymns while they waited to be removed.’
- ‘Protestants and other Christians have made wide use of secular sources for their hymn tunes and religious music.’
- ‘The congregation sang the hymns to the accompaniment of organiser Ita Fitzpatrick.’
- ‘Our part of the programme entails the traditional bit of hymn singing in church.’
- ‘It was a dignified service, the hymns sung by the congregation with increasing emotion.’
- ‘The Bible Club members sit on a plastic sheet, wearing religious placards and singing hymns.’
- ‘Were they preludes to a hymn sung by a congregation, and, if so, commoners in a parish church or gentry in a court chapel?’
- ‘Through our hymns of praise, help us to celebrate the promises of your acceptance, love, and forgiveness.’
- ‘In the Christian tradition, hymns are songs of worship, sung by congregation and choir.’
- ‘Unlike other funerals of known ANC leaders which are dominated by freedom songs, a church choir sang hymns for the activist.’
- ‘Both sat weeping with their heads bowed when after a service of hymns, prayers and poems, Robbie Williams's song Angels was performed.’
- ‘It was especially heart-warming to sing hymns and songs of praise with so many people.’
- ‘Women participated in the singing of hymns, preaching in religious gatherings without any distinction.’
- 1.2A song, text, or other composition praising or celebrating someone or something.‘a most unusual passage like a hymn to the great outdoors’
- ‘Here, Earle lets guitar, harmonica, and drums roll out a vibrant hymn to hope.’
- ‘Not two weeks ago these people were composing hymns to the separation of powers.’
- ‘Don Quixote is a monument to absurdity, a hymn to the inspiration and futility of the romantic anti-hero.’
- ‘The lucky fools should be taking heart from the theme of the song, a hymn to love for its own sake, regardless of its object.’
- ‘Will Hutton's new book is a hymn of praise to Europe.’
- ‘Time After Time is an extended hymn to nature and indigenous traditions, across three continents.’
- ‘It centers around the slain but risen Lamb, and climaxes in a great hymn to the Paschal Lamb.’
- ‘It is a hymn to the unanticipated and the miraculous and to the sustaining potential of faith and hope in life itself.’
- ‘Earth has guessed much and rhythms the hymn behind the world in the stroke of her waves.’
- ‘These portraits lent them a near iconic dimension, recording a pictorial hymn in their praise for posterity.’
- ‘He picks up the same musical motif again after his hymn to love.’
- ‘One of my favorite books is an extended hymn of praise to French food, wine and general attitude toward the pleasant things in life.’
- ‘More precisely, the film is a hymn to the theatricality implicit in most love affairs: their deceptive art and sweet fraudulence.’
- ‘It is likely that you will join in the author's song with joy and wholeheartedly endorse the great hymn to eco-feminism with which chapter fifteen concludes.’
verb
1[with object] Praise or celebrate (something)‘Johnson's reply hymns education’
praise, applaud, cheer, commend, express approval of, approve, express admiration for, welcome, pay tribute to, speak highly of, eulogize, compliment, congratulate, celebrate, sing the praises of, praise to the skies, rave about, go into raptures about, go into raptures over, heap praise on, wax lyrical about, say nice things about, make much of, pat on the back, take one's hat off to, salute, throw bouquets at, lionize, exalt, admire, hail, toast, flatter, adulate, vaunt, extol, glorify, honour, hymn, clapView synonyms
- ‘Widowed, and with a little child, he felt violent pangs of transient remorse, and hymned his dead wife in vintage Nineties poet's minor melody.’
- ‘He hymns the progress of the year just past and the minty weight of new policies waiting for examination.’
- ‘The finale optimistically hymns the progress of humankind.’
- ‘We want to hymn the man at the wheel, who hurls the lance of his spirit across the Earth, along the circle of its orbit.’
- ‘Last year they spoofed Lord of the Rings, mastered hip-hop and hymned the robot revolution - all on acoustic guitars.’
- ‘As rations dwindled, she sustained herself by hymning the consolations of good food.’
- ‘Remote antiquity, hymned by the tribe's poet, is revered, and the future feared as it may bring catastrophe or even annihilation.’
- ‘For many centuries, he has been a comfortably rotund elephant-headed god hymned at the beginning of enterprises.’
- ‘Having hymned the nation's maritime glories, Wilson asked what he meant to be a purely rhetorical question: ‘And why am I saying all this?’’
- ‘Already enamoured of the small Canadian town, he began to hymn its praises in verse which he read to public gatherings.’
- ‘Our problem is that we no longer see holiness in its particulars, in practices like marriage or work that he hymns over and again in his writing.’
- ‘Today, the hymning of mental frailty has significantly reduced the stigma of idleness.’
- ‘Modesty, stoicism, self-restraint and resilience: these are endangered virtues, and I want to hymn them.’
- ‘With the Plame case, it is tempting to hymn the security services, and their hard work in discovering WMD.’
- ‘Knox, safe in Frankfurt with the ‘Marian exiles’, lashed The Monstrous Regiment [rule] of Women and hymned the martyrs to Mary Tudor's fanaticism.’
- ‘Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own affectingly hymns the singer's late father, pulling back from mawkishness.’
- ‘For example, they did not often gather together with harps and rebecks to celebrate their national glories, or to hymn their national heroes.’
2rare [no object] Sing hymns.
- ‘All set for the kindling of the sacred fire, we hymn you, O Lord, with our verses, invoking your powerful grace.’
- ‘There were Victorian songs of stilted enthusiasm for the innocence and clear sunny skies of the new country, hymned in the English art song idiom.’
Origin
Old English, via Latin from Greek humnos ode or song in praise of a god or hero used in the Septuagint to translate various Hebrew words, and hence in the New Testament and other Christian writings.
Pronunciation:
hymn/him/
Further reading
12 synonyms for foolRead more
Are you looking for a word for a foolish person? We explore twelve interesting words to describe the dunderheads in your life.
6 ‘run’ phrases you probably don’t knowRead more
Before you run for the hills, let’s run through a list of ‘run’ expressions that are running through our minds.
How brothers became buddies and brosRead more
The definitions of ‘buddy’ and ‘bro’ in the OED have recently been revised. We explore their history and increase in popularity. | https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/hymn |
Is there a formula for the design of a perfect worship space? What are the design concerns?
Jesus did not invite his followers to build anything. The New Testament gives no suggestion that early Christians built places of worship. Stephen, at his defense, just before his death, stated that God does not dwell in buildings. Part of his message recorded in Acts, chapter seven reads: “And David found favor in God’s sight, and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for Him. However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands . . .” Edifices do not accommodated God. A worshiping assembly brings sacred space into being, not a building or its art. Early Christians did, indeed, worshiped in inconspicuous family homes.
When the Roman Emperor Constantine proclaimed the Edict of Milan in AD 313, Christianity became a public religion and its practice became more open. Church and state were fused, as the Church was an establishment of the Empire. Christianity expanded; therefore large buildings were needed for fellowship. With these larger structures, the corporate worship practices of small groups disappeared as the clergy presided over the acts of liturgy to more populous congregations.
Constantine, the impelling force behind the new architecture, preferred the plan of the Greco-Roman basilica that became the standard layout for Christian worship halls. For Constantine, the Greco-Roman plan was fitting because the basilica was associated with dignity. He ordered church architecture to be monumental and of high order. In the terminating apse, the tribunal was replaced by the cathedra, the bishop’s chair from where the sermon was preached. The architectural floor plan was a single longitudinal room with parallel colonnades and aisles. The clergy had their special area, the chancel, raised above the laity. The previous portable wooden altar was superseded by a permanent structure decorated sumptuously with gold and jewels. Imperial in concept, ample in plan, and dominant among surrounding buildings, the new worship centers were architecturally distinct from all domestic buildings. The concept of this spacious worship structure has lasted for most of the history of the Christian Church until the present time.
An attitude emerged that God could be localized in a place similar to that of the Holy of Holies in the Old Testament tabernacle. God’s presence became associated with designated places. Worship halls became viewed as a domus dei, that is, a house of God. Thus, the importance of the chancel came into being. The attitude that God was of greater measure in the chancel became infused in the minds of the people. Remnants of this attitude have lasted over sixteen hundred years.
Altar sites were venerated. Eventually a baldachino or canopy was added further glorifying the embellished altar, a practice still in use in some churches today. Veils were often placed around the baldachino when the altar was not in use, screening its appearance from the laity — a visual statement of the inner sacred cell of the Old Covenant Holy of Holies, a dwelling for the Divine.
Thus, the chancel became the place for only the clergy. The literate were permitted to approach God. Corporate worship was to be professional.
This traditional church plan still holds symbolic weight today. It suggests that God is more alive in the worship hall than out of it. Leaving the worship space becomes a negative sign — the act of worshipers leaving the house of God implying that secular life is separated from religious life. Unfortunately the reality that God dwells among and within His people has often not been successfully communicated architecturally.
To be avoided in worship space design is the attitude that the chancel is remote from the worshiping congregation. The chancel and nave should visually describe one space. Should the communion rail be avoided because it divides space? A consistent use of colors, shapes, and building materials throughout the hall connotes a single room. Likewise, a best practice is that pastors sit on the same style of bench at the same level as the congregation. Or, possibly they with their families may sit in the nave with the rest of the congregation.
- Introduction
- What is the first consideration when building a new place of worship?
- Why be concerned about the architecture and art of a church building? After all, isn’t style of architecture and its art simply about a person’s taste of color and form?
- What is a good approach when selecting visual art pieces for a worship space?
- Is there a formula for the design of a perfect worship space? What are the design concerns?
- Should there be communion rails in a church?
- Where is the best position for the baptismal space, by the entrance of the church, or in the chancel?
- Why are restrictive lids placed on some baptismal fonts?
- What forms of the cross are best for a worship space chancel?
- How can the cross be used in a congregation’s symbol or logo?
- Should the two flags — American and Christian — be placed as a pair in the chancel of a church? Why or why not?
- What is the purpose of an eternal light in a worship space?
- Where is the best location for the praise band in a worship space?
- What about using artificial materials on the worship structure to save money?
- Is light an important consideration in worship? Please explain.
- What kinds of floor plans for the nave of a worship space encourage fellowship?
- Biblical Numerology
- What is the difference between religious art and liturgical art? | http://wwolfram.com/theology/formula_for_design.php |
This post presents my thoughts about the pre-Markan history of the Roman congregation. It’s entirely top-of-my-head speculation, but of interest—I hope—because I’ve spent several years immersed in the Gospel of Mark and its adjacent texts. My thoughts on the origin of Mark’s congregation are consistent with the picture I paint in The Two Gospels of Mark: Performance and Text.
Summary
Mark’s congregation was probably founded by Alexandrian emigrés to Rome. They brought Hebrews (written c. 40 CE), with its idea of a heavenly high priest (Christ). Or they brought the idea, and acquired the text of Hebrews later. Over the next two centuries and perhaps beyond they continued to import both Alexandrian scholarship and Alexandrian emigrés and visitors. This Roman congregation probably used a solar calendar from the start–which implies that the source Alexandrian congregation had Essene roots. The congregation should be understood as both a religious and a social gathering place for Judeans from Alexandria.
What the Gospel of Mark tells us about the congregation
The concern for the purity of the Jerusalem Temple implies that Mark’s congregation is Judean-identified (not Samaritan-identified or Gentile-identified). That is, the members see themselves as practicing a form of Judean religion. In antiquity, “the ancients viewed the world not in terms of countries with borders, but of populations with distinctive physical traits, laws (often from a famed lawgiver), customs, diets, dress, Gods, and holidays. Each people’s distinctive laws and customs tended to be connected with its unique environment. In the simplest model, everyone belonged to an ethnos and this was their primary group allegiance.”- Steve Mason, A history of the Jewish War, pp. 88-89. Mark and his congregation saw themselves as ethnic Judeans, and as Gentile practitioners/sympathizers of (the congregation’s version of) Judean religion.
Their god is YHWH. Their belief system includes Jesus, a heavenly intermediary who they understand as both the heavenly high priest (the Son of Man) and the national messiah (Son of God). Their religious practices include a Eucharist, hymn-singing, prayer, and baptism. They celebrate Judean holidays like Passover and Sukkoth. Probably they observed the Sabbath/Lord’s Day. They used the Septuagint, and also other texts that are not currently canonical (e.g., Enoch literature). They had a wisdom collection (used in the Gospel of Mark) and exegetical works on Scripture.
A congregation of Alexandrian emigrés
Are there extant any texts or historical information that can shed light on the origin of such a congregation in Rome?
The only extant text that contains the heavenly high priest concept (found in the Gospel of Mark) is the Letter to the Hebrews. I note that Hebrews was preserved within orthodoxy. It was even assigned to the orthodox apostle Paul. The only orthodox-affiliated institution in the first and second centuries that would have treasured and preserved Hebrews is the Roman congregation, Mark’s congregation. It therefore seems likely to me that Mark knew Hebrews. And other texts from that author’s congregation.
What is the origin of Hebrews? There are some internal clues. It does not refer to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, so it was written before 70 CE. (I believe that the author would not have failed to mention that event if it had occurred. He would have stressed how fortunate his sect was to have already understood that the heavenly Temple was the true Temple.) The author of Hebrews is a highly educated Hellenistic Judean. Given that all of our evidence for Judeans prior to Mark who had a divine intermediary comes from Egypt, I think it likely that this text was written in Egypt. The author is a patient pastor who encourages his flock to remain faithful. It is at least possible that they have been discouraged by the riots and the desecration of Alexandrian synagogues in 38 CE. (And Hebrews was written shortly afterwards.) However, I note that the received text of Hebrews is the product of the Roman Catholic Church, and therefore must have been extensively edited and supplemented. And therefore my inferences from the text are speculative. Still an inferred date of 40 CE has no religious significance and therefore is unlikely to have been changed by an editor.
What were the beliefs and origin of the congregation of Hebrews? They were Alexandrian believers in a divine intermediary, a heavenly high priest (anointed one/Christ). Whether he was named “Jesus” or not. (The name in the text of Hebrews could have been easily edited later in Rome to conform to the Roman congregation’s use of “Jesus” as the name of the divine intermediary.). Obviously the Alexandrians were not Pharisees. Their thought came out of an Alexandrian Judean tradition. Given what we know, I think it likely that the congregation of Hebrews was a sort of lay branch of the Essenes.
I suggest that some Alexandrian Judeans influenced by that congregation or thought tradition emigrated to Rome in the early/mid first century. They needed a gathering place of their own. I suggest that they established a synagogue. This Roman congregation observed a solar calendar (like the Roman calendar, therefore lowering the barrier to entry by Gentile sympathizers). (The Quartodeciman controversy in the mid-second-century involved the Roman congregation defending their long-used solar calendar.) As the Essenes and the sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls people were the only Judean sects we know of that had a solar calendar, it is likely that the Alexandrians who established Mark’s congregation had Essene roots.
Years later (50s? 60s? 70s? CE) Mark joined this congregation. Mark was well-educated in Scripture, which suggests that he had grown up in a more Judean environment than Rome. I suspect that he too was from Alexandria. As were most if not all of the Judean members. (Of course there were also clients, freedmen and freedwomen, and slaves, many of whom were not Judean or Alexandrian.)
By Mark’s time, the Roman congregation of Alexandrians had given the name “Jesus” to the heavenly high priest/divine intermediary. They (or their exegetical affiliates) had produced scholarship that placed this heavenly figure (whether under the name “Jesus” or “Christ”) in scenarios such as being mocked and being pierced. Mark dramatized these scenarios when he wrote a play in which the heavenly protagonist, Jesus, comes to earth on a mission to die and rise.
We cannot know what the Roman congregation thought of the play. Were they comfortable having their Jesus figure in a play, explicitly modeled on other dying-and-rising gods/angels? Did they think the play was in bad taste, or inappropriate? How closely did the ritual elements in the play track their own performed rituals? I can only say that they accepted the play as a secular entertainment with a single performance. (They had to; the play was produced by the congregation’s Gentile benefactor, Flavia Domitilla.) The play’s ‘welcome to the Gentiles,’ in particular, may have been discordant with the congregation’s normal attitude, but was acceptable in the context of flattering the benefactor.
I think that the congregation remained a gathering place for well-to-do Judeans from Alexandria for many decades. People join religious groups for social as well as religious reasons, and well-to-do Alexandrians would have wanted to meet Greek-speaking Judeans they could dine with. (Note that well-to-do Judeans from Judea and Syria came from less-Hellenized environments, and spoke Aramaic.) In addition, the congregation had the attraction of its political connections to the Flavian family.
I believe Hebrews was preserved in the Roman congregation. In the New Testament, only Hebrews and the Gospel of Mark see Jesus as the heavenly high priest. Hebrews gave context to Mark’s concept of Jesus. I think the stream of Alexandrian emigrés to Rome continued in the second and perhaps even third centuries. They created a non-Jerusalem-focused Judean ethnic identity much longer than the Asian orthodox congregations that provided most of the talent and energy that produced the New Testament. In fact, I see Mark’s congregation in the second century as a lonely (but rich and well-established) outlier in the orthodox world, asserting against the Paulinization of orthodox Christianity the continued relevance of the Judean Bible. The Roman congregation won, and that is why Catholic/Orthodox Christianity retained the Old Testament. | http://www.thetwogospelsofmark.com/2020/08/07/what-was-the-origin-of-marks-congregation/ |
Almost from the moment Jews arrived in Oregon, they have sought to meet the spiritual needs of the community.
from the California gold fields.
During the first 100 years of Jewish life in Oregon, congregations emerged, merged and evolved to meet the ever-changing spiritual, lifecycle and community needs of an increasingly dispersed and diverse population.
Congregation Ahavai Sholom, a Conservative congregation, was founded by Jews originally from Prussia, in 1869. Congregations Neveh Zedek and Talmud Torah began in 1892 and 1893, respectively, and eventually merged with Ahavai Sholom in 1961 to form Congregation Neveh Shalom.
Temple Beth Israel in Eugene; and Temple Beth Sholom in Salem.
Corvallis had to wait until 1974 before Beit Am arrived. That same decade, Portland saw its first new congregation in many years – Havurah Shalom, founded in 1978.
The decades since have seen continued growth and diversity within Oregon’s Jewish community, with vibrant new congregations in the greater Portland area and throughout the state and region offering options from Jewish Renewal to Chabad Hasidism and Humanistic Judaism.
On the following pages, you can find the congregations and outreach groups that now serve the Jewish communities of Oregon and Southwest Washington.
You are a part of the Chabad #Mishpacha, where every Jew is family! Chabad is dedicated to providing every Jew, regardless of background, philosophy or level of commitment, an open door environment for enriching Jewish life. Through outreach, education and a range of social services we aspire to help every individual and family enhance their awareness, experience and practice of Judaism. Each Chabad center is supported by the community it serves.
Catch the spirit at SW Portland’s Chabad! We are warm & welcoming community where young and old, singles and couples find joy, meaning and relevance in their Judaism.
We offer a very special, welcoming space for the Southeast Jewish community. Our programming is designed to make you feel at home no matter what your level of observance or Jewish knowledge. Come check us out!
A community center for families and individuals looking to enhance their awareness, experience and practice of Judaism. Our synagogue, preschool, Hebrew school, women’s group, day camp, holiday events and Shabbat dinners are open to the community.
The first and only Jewish center in Hillsboro & Washington County, we serve the entire community’s Jewish needs – Shabbat services & kiddush, Sunday Hebrew school, bar/bat mitzvah classes, weekly classes, women’s club, holiday programs and activities.
Portland’s welcoming and egalitarian Conservative congregation, Neveh Shalom offers a dynamic array of religious services, the finest Jewish education program from preschool through adult, social justice opportunities, and many cultural and social activities. CNS creates and deepens relationships to Judaism and our community. Come find your place with us! Our Senior Rabbi David Kosak, Cantor Deborah Bletstein, Rabbi Eve Posen, Rabbis Emeritus Daniel Isaak and Joshua Stampfer, and our community look forward to welcoming you.
Shaarie Torah is revitalizing Conservative Jewish life in the heart of Northwest Portland. An inclusive, egalitarian and multigenerational synagogue since 1905, Shaarie Torah offers innovative Jewish programming, services and activities for every age and interest. Join us for a Shabbat, Saturday morning Kiddush or just stop by and say hi!
Kol Shalom, Community for Humanistic Judaism, offers a way to be Jewish from a humanist perspective. We welcome all who identify with the history, culture and fate for the Jewish people. We offer a way to celebrate Jewish identity without requiring belief in a supernatural being or adherence to prescribed rituals. Our purpose is to foster community by celebrating Jewish holidays, festivals and lifecycle events; providing education for all ages; and supporting social justice.
Congregation Shir Tikvah is an independent congregation on Portland’s Eastside. We accept Jews from all different backgrounds and acknowledge different ways of practicing and living Jewishly. In addition to services every Friday and Saturday, we have lively Shabbat Torah study, engaging children’s education programs for Pre-K thru b’nai mitzvah and festive celebrations. Our open, thought-provoking approach invites you to live Judaism with us through study, prayer, music and acts of social justice.
Havurah Shalom is a vibrant, diverse and engaged Jewish community. Steeped in Jewish values, Havurah promotes spirituality, learning and acts of social responsibility. In the spirit of giving back to our community, Havurah’s High Holiday services are open to the public and free of charge. We hope you will join us for Shabbat, holiday celebrations and High Holiday services.
Beit Haverim is an open, inviting and spiritually alive Jewish community just outside of Portland in Lake Oswego. Beit Haverim welcomes everyone to our Reform congregation of Jews by birth, Jews by choice and Jews at heart. We invite you to visit our congregation, where families and individuals experience the sense of Jewish belonging that comes from shared worship, religious instruction, tikkun olam and social events not too far from home. Affiliated with Union for Reform Judaism.
Congregation Beth Israel, affiliated with Reform Judaism since 1879, is a vital center of Oregon Jewish life. Our historic campus serves as a house of prayer, a house of study, and a house of assembly, hosting religious services, celebrations, and ceremonies; preschool, religious school; and opportunities for congregants of all ages to engage in education programming, social action, and advocacy on local and national levels. CBI’s beautifully maintained cemetery is located in southwest Portland.
Congregation Kol Ami brings together a Jewish community for worship, learning, social events and tikkun olam. Our worship services are inclusive and energetic, blending traditional with contemporary in prayer and song. Services on all major holidays, Friday Shabbat service, Saturday Torah study and service, and monthly Tot Shabbat service. We have a monthly potluck Shabbat meal. Everyone of all ages is welcome to attend and participate in our services and Shabbat meals. (See Education listing).
P’nai Or is a vibrant, egalitarian Jewish Renewal congregation. Our joyous worship is infused with singing, chanting and dance. We “pray with our feet” through tikkun olam. We study Torah, Kabbalah, teachings of Chassidic masters and other classic Jewish sources. A diversity of Jewish experience and expression is reflected in our membership; all are welcome. P’nai Or is a place where a Jewish spiritual perspective can flourish. Our intent is to make Jewish spirituality accessible.
Are there any Jewish cemeteries or consecrated areas for Jewish burial in Clatsop County?
I am in Tillamook, Oregon for a while. Is there a Jewish community, or even people of the Jewish faith in my area? | http://orjewishlife.com/congregations-2/comment-page-1/ |
What is it?
Intervertebral hernia— The offset of the strain of the intervertebral disc. The most frequent location of hernia — the lumbar spine.
Most often the disease occurs between the ages of 20 to 50 years and are one of the most common causes of temporary disability, and often the patient's disability.
What's going on?
Herniation of intervertebral discs are serious complication of spinal osteochondrosis.
The disease occurs due to rupture of the intervertebral disc. Formed in this hernia, bulging back and to the side, pressing on the nerve root at the point of exit from the spinal canal and causes inflammation, accompanied by edema. This explains why the pain and loss of sensation may not appear immediately after the onset of illness.
Strangulated nerve root in the brain sends pain impulses that are perceived as a man pain in the region, sensitivity which is provided by this nerve. Also in this area is disturbed motor coordination and muscle strength.
What way?
The main complaint is pain. Typically, the pain occur after moderate exercise, an uncomfortable situation at work or in bed, when you lean while turning to the side, often in combination with weight lifting. Then, during the day there pain and weakness in the area of innervation. When moving, coughing, sneezing or straining the pain intensifies and often become so severe that the person is in need of bed rest.
When a disc herniation in the lumbar pain are often lampasny character (spread over the outer surface of the leg) may be permanent or transient.
In addition to pain sensitivity disorder can be defined, such as hypoesthesia (reduced sensitivity) and anesthesia (lack of sensitivity), rarely — hypersensitivity (sensitivity).
Observed autonomic dysfunction in the form of lower skin temperature, slack edema (pastosity) varies sweating, increased dryness of the skin. Sometimes patients can not straighten the leg
Diagnosis
The diagnosis is a neurologist or neurosurgeon in the presence of the described symptoms. To clarify his use of the following methods: computed tomography, spondilography, radiography.
Treatment
Generally the disease extends beyond
Just as with other diseases of the lumbar spine, it is recommended to lay on his back with raised or laid down on the pillow, changing the position of the body and finding a comfortable position without pain.
In order to mitigate the severe pain can receive painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs. Through
Another method of treatment of intervertebral hernia in the acute stage — spinal traction. This is a very old way of the interest in which has recently increased again. Stretching creates a pressure in the intervertebral space, which leads to the return of a protruding portion of the disk to its original position. It is necessary to find the right direction and pick an appropriate impact force to prevent damage spine an even greater extent. With the proper conduct of the procedure pain should decrease, not increase.
After the acute phase of the disease to strengthen the weakened muscles of the back and the return of normal mobility of the spine should start physiotherapy sessions. More rapid and complete recovery helps massage.
Sometimes the reduced sensitivity in some places legs and a feeling of weakness in it is observed after cessation of pain. This is due to the fact that the damaged nerve root is still not restored its function. The range of motion at the same time, as a rule, remains normal. | https://survincity.com/2013/07/intervertebral-hernia/ |
The worship service begins at 10:30 and lasts for approximately an hour and 15 minutes.
We welcome any and all who wish to worship with us. Trinity is a Reconciling Congregation and we welcome everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender expression to worship with us. Our congregation is all-inclusive and we also welcome anyone with physical, mental, or memory challenges to be a part of our congregation.
We encourage all people attending worship to participate fully in the experience, through singing, praying, active listening, receiving communion, or any other aspect of the service.
Each year the worship committee choses a theme to focus and guide the worship experience. You can learn more about this year's theme on the Mountains and Valleys page.
Children are welcome at our worship service and people are encouraged to worship together as a family. We provide a table at the entrance to the sanctuary with books and other items for children to use during the service.
During the “Children’s Moment” all children are invited to join with the worship leader at the steps to the chancel area for a discussion about some aspect of life and faith in an age-appropriate (and often entertaining) way.
Information concerning our Nursery, and worship alternatives for children can be found on our Children’s Ministries page.
The ushers can direct you to the appropriate areas.
Communion is served on the first Sunday of every month. In the United Methodist tradition we practice an “open table,” which means all are welcome to participate in Communion, regardless of religious affiliation, age or church membership.
Communion is served by intinction (taking a piece of bread and dipping it into the cup of grape juice). Communion is served at the front of the sanctuary or at the altar. If a person does not wish or is unable to come forward, alert an usher and it will be served in the pews. Trinity has gluten free bread and grape juice available.
The sacrament of Christian baptism is most often held during the worship service. It can be administered to people of all ages: infants, children, youth or adults. Baptisms do have to be scheduled well ahead of time with one of the pastors.
Following the worship service all are invited to join the Fellowship Hour in Asbury Hall to greet old and new friends and learn about activities and upcoming opportunities. | https://www.trinityspringfield.org/worship/worship-service |
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This article was first publish on the ECCTIS blog
Like many other countries in the world, aspects of public perception towards technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Turkey need to be addressed. In Turkey, public perception of a quality education still favours the academic route and an understanding persists that students who opt for vocational education are less able. The approach to resolving this perceived disparity between the two educational routes has been to focus on promoting TVET through real-life examples of best practice and has resulted in the prejudice against vocational education slowly being broken down, and its reputation as a viable, valuable option for young learners gaining strength.
At the end of May the Research & Consultancy team participated in an EU-funded study visit* to the Turkish province of Mersin, where the impact of this approach was really experienced first-hand. The programme consisted of discussions and meetings with key stakeholders in the TVET sector, providing an opportunity to share experiences and perspectives on best practice in Turkey and more widely in Europe. In theory the purpose of the visit was to explore issues around the valuable contribution that partnerships can make to TVET, but in practice it explored the broader issues of competency-based and modular TVET curricula, teacher training for TVET teachers, Lifelong Learning, the importance of the Vocational Qualifications Authority, developing TVET in compliance with the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), working towards a system of credit transfer (ECVET), and raising awareness and ownership of TVET. Specific to Turkey, three interesting aspects emerged as a result of the study visit:
- The sheer amount of investment in education in Mersin
The education system in Mersin benefits from investment from all directions, both public and private, and government departments and educational institutions use this in order to deal with lack of funding and financial reserves. The private sector takes its social responsibility towards the future population and education very seriously, and companies and businessmen invest in schools and school buildings. The government stimulates these investments by giving tax reductions. In turn, schools are experienced in representing themselves to the community in order to secure and maintain funds.
- The centralised nature of investment in education
Interestingly much of the government investment in education seems to be controlled by central rather than regional government. This means that the regional education directorates have little autonomy in the allocation of funds to specific areas of education, and as such development in the sector follows the national agenda.
- The selectivity of students within the TVET sector
An aspect of the TVET sector in Mersin that varied significantly from the UK system was that the schools visited as part of the programme remained highly selective in nature. The TVET sector in the UK has been designed to widen participation in education to those less able or interested in an academic education. However the study visit revealed that TVET schools and colleges in Turkey remain highly selective in their recruitment practices and thereby ensure that they select only the brightest and most capable students. Although this is beneficial for the schools, it may be that students who might have once needed this route into education are now being denied it due to competition for places.
More commonly across all the participant countries (including Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the UK) it was recognised that the employability of students when they exit the education system is an area that requires attention in order to ensure they have the relevant skills and competencies to enter the workforce. Key observations were:
- Lithuania has a well-developed approach to enabling university students to be work ready. There is open dialogue between students and local employers, facilitated by universities and enabling students to know what is required of them to increase their chances of employability. This helps students in several ways, including the ability to tailor their specific courses according to local business needs, the ability to build relationships with businesses, and developing thesis topics which are relevant and contribute to real business situations.
- Poland has identified that there are two streams of work-enabling education – vocational and higher. In vocational education there is a lack of skilled trainers to develop young people’s employability skills and in higher education students are not work ready. They are currently pursuing a two strand strategy to improve higher education student work-readiness by firstly focusing on skills required by the market and secondly focusing on universities developing research knowledge.
- Finland has noted an increase in the number of unemployed graduates, attributed to a lack of employment skills. Although Finnish education policy is reducing budget allocation to Polytechnics (seen as a continuation of vocational training) the universities are not capturing the students unable to obtain places at Polytechnics. Competence based training, or learning in the workplace are both popular for vocational training in Finland.
- In the UK it is recognised by businesses that most graduates are not work ready and lack basic employment skills. To overcome this, a number of universities are developing programmes to enhance their students’ employability through enhancing professionalism, reflection and critical learning, lifelong learning, communication, and teamwork skills. In such programmes students engage with employers throughout their awards, either through a range of work related opportunities such as projects, assessments, visiting speakers or work opportunities. Academics are encouraged to build networks with employers and to undertake research or consultancy work where appropriate.
These observations indicated similar approaches adopted by the participating countries in cooperation between education institutions and key stakeholders and an appreciation of the importance of close cooperation as the best way to maximise resources and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the education system.
Participation in the study visit was an enlightening experience and highlighted current issues in education systems across Europe. Having explored the theory of partnerships in education, the Research & Consultancy Team is now hoping to continue putting this into practice by realising future partnerships in education. In line with UK NARIC, ECCTIS Ltd’s purpose to facilitate mobility, such partnerships will centre on easing transitions for students both across and within education systems. | https://ecctisblog.com/2015/12/17/technical-and-vocational-education-and-training-in-turkey-part-2/ |
All students who attend public schools in Australia are entitled to free education, though parents or guardians must pay for school supplies, including textbooks. The government provides financial aid to low-income families to cover some of these costs. School funding is derived from both state and federal taxes; approximately 75% of the funding comes from the state, with the remaining 25% from the federal government.
Australia also has a robust private school sector, with 31% of Australian students enrolled in non-government (private) schools, the vast majority of which have a religious affiliation. These schools are required to meet the minimum federal education standards as determined by national assessments, but otherwise may choose their own curriculum. However, the majority follow the frameworks used by the public schools in their state. Private schools also receive some degree of government funding from both the state and federal levels. The amount depends on their ability to raise sufficient funds on their own.
On average, OECD countries spend $9,860 per student per year; Australia spends $9,056. This represents 5.2% of Australia’s GDP, lower than the OECD average of 5.9%.
Over the last 30 years, governance of Australia’s schools has become increasingly decentralized; this is due largely to the increased belief that school autonomy leads to better responsiveness to problems and to higher quality overall. Private schools are almost wholly self-run, though, like government schools, they are required to participate in NAPLAN.
The federal government is responsible for broad-based policy development and reform; the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) sets an agenda for the states to follow in a manner best befitting their unique demographics. Schools are also required to participate in national assessments and to teach the national curriculum.
However, Australian schools are largely managed on the state level, with the Minister of Education in each state or territory responsible for determining teacher training requirements, student enrollment policies and school-based assessments. Generally, these policies are quite similar across the nation. Since the 1990s, there has been a growing movement to devolve power to school leaders and school boards. The amount of control that a school board has (as compared to the state Department of Education) varies from state to state, but a 2004 federal Schools Assistance Act called for the states to give school principals and governing bodies greater autonomy over education programs, staffing and budgetary decisions. In most cases, school boards or councils have been put into place to allow for community input at the local government level. These boards have varying levels of power, from the power to advise the principal to planning the school’s budget and completing school budgetary reviews. Principals are typically members of these organizations.
Within schools, principals for the most part have a great deal of responsibility. They are in charge of educational leadership and school management, and are also the accountable body to the educational authorities and school stakeholders.
Several non-government groups, including the Australian Council of State Schools Organisations, the Australian Parents Council, the Independent Teachers Federation, the Australian Education Union and the National Industry Education Forum of Australia represent the interests of parents, teachers and industry leaders with respect to the public school system. Similar groups represent the private sector. These organizations serve as lobby and consultation groups to state and federal education policymakers.
Australia works hard to create transparency about school, teacher and student performance. Outcomes and other information is managed through the My School website established in 2010, which is run by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). The website provides a great deal of information about each of Australia’s schools, including the numbers of students and staff, the socioeconomic background of the student body, results from national literacy and numeracy tests, student attendance rates, teaching resources and post-school student career and academic paths.
Alongside My School, the National Assessment Plan administers exams and monitors student progress on the national level. These include the national literacy and numeracy (NAPLAN) tests, as well as assessments of student samples in science, civics and information and communication technology (ICT). These sample assessments are given every three years and are given in grades 6 and 10, though science assessments only take place in grade 6.
Australian educators and policymakers are beginning to use the information provided on the My School site to help schools improve. Educators and policymakers can use the information to compare schools and make decisions about staffing and resource allocation, and parents can use the site to help choose a school for their children.
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Press Release. (May 2012). Empowering Local Schools Initiative.
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. (2011). Education Reform Agenda.
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Review of Funding for Schooling.
The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) welcomes an “honest and comprehensive” public debate about school policy and reform, and makes a great deal of information about school funding, resources and student performance readily available through their website, including the My School site, which provides a comprehensive breakdown of student background and performance, as well as teaching resources, for every school in the country. Similarly, as the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has been building the new national curriculum, they have made draft versions available online and welcomed comments as part of the development process. In addition to encouraging the public to weigh in on educational challenges and successes, under the Building the Education Revolution initiative, community members have full access to new facilities (libraries and multipurpose halls, among others) created by this initiative.
Parents may elect to send their children to any government school of their choice, provided there is space in the school for their child. Parents also have access to their children’s schools through parents’ associations, which exist in each state and territory. Many of these organizations provide a great deal of information to parents about volunteer opportunities at their child’s school and how they can further encourage their child’s education. | https://ncee.org/what-we-do/center-on-international-education-benchmarking/top-performing-countries/australia-overview/australia-system-and-school-organization/ |
Gov. Gary Herbert presented his FY2016 budget
proposal at Granite Park Jr. High, Dec. 11.
(Photo: Steve Griffin, Salt Lake Tribune)
The Utah Education Association strongly supports the Governor’s proposed investments in the WPU, student enrollment growth, technology infrastructure and providing educators with classroom supply money.
“The proposed $342.7 million public education increase is a significant and worthwhile investment in Utah’s schoolchildren and the state’s economy. It also goes a long way toward restoring funding to pre-recession levels and positions us to begin addressing the additional resources so desperately needed in Utah’s grossly underfunded public school classrooms,” said UEA President Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh.
The Governor’s budget reflects his and the legislature’s long-standing stated belief that the primary way to increase funding for public education is to grow the economy and invest the resulting tax proceeds in education, she noted.
In his press conference, the Governor emphasized that the money will flow to school districts, where he believes local officials can spend it most effectively to address specific needs.
"We believe in local control," Gov. Herbert said. "We also expect the local superintendents and school boards, the local principals, to manage the resources as they see fit as they have unique needs in the local community. The demographics in Utah are not the same, and we would not expect a one-size-fits-all solution to education."
The UEA believes investing in the WPU allows local school boards the flexibility to address priorities specific to their individual schools’ needs, whether that be providing classes small enough for one-on-one attention, purchasing new technology, restoring teacher training opportunities or offering competitive compensation to attract and retain quality school employees.
“The business community recognizes the positive impact a world-class public education system has on the economy,” Gallagher-Fishbaugh said. “As Utah’s economy continues to improve, educator compensation, teacher training and classroom resources must keep pace if we want to retain our quality public school classroom teachers.”
Over the past five years, school districts have increased class sizes, eliminated teacher training opportunities, cut student instructional days and reduced school employee take-home pay in order to balance stretched budgets.
“Utah teachers have stepped up and done more with less for many years,” said Gallagher-Fishbaugh. “Now it’s time for our legislators to step up and recognize the importance of investing in public education.”
The Legislative Fiscal Analyst has announced that the state can expect an overall $638 million increase in state tax revenue for next fiscal year.
Of the $500 million Gov. Herbert proposed for education, more than half would go to public education.
The increased per-pupil spending comes on top of $58 million in his budget to cover nearly 8,000 new students expected to enroll in Utah’s public and charter schools next year. He also seeks $56 million for to build and renovate schools and to upgrade the technology infrastructure. | https://myuea.org/Articles/uea_supports_governors_proposed_fy2016_education_budget.aspx |
Universal Basic Education (UBE) has been a prominent feature of international development goals. Papua New Guinea’s Universal Basic Education Plan (UBEP) runs from 2010 to 2019. One of the impediments to the successful attainment of UBEP in PNG is the issue of violence against girls and women (VAG/W) in schools.
Research that I conducted examines how school leaders address VAG/W in schools and the implications for UBEP and education policies in PNG. Its impact in undermining girls’ education seems to be underestimated. I interviewed four school leaders and surveyed 101 students in two different schools in PNG, one in the Central Province (rural) and the other in the National Capital District (NCD) (urban). This research used mixed quantitative and qualitative methods.
Students’ experiences
It is important to gauge school leaders’ and students’ views to understand their perceptions of safety based on their lived experiences of feeling safe. Their experiences and understandings influence the promotion of a learning environment free from violence. This is especially important for girls who are most likely to be disadvantaged in terms of accessibility, participation and retention in PNG schools. Violence and oppression of girls endangers their freedom to pursue education. My research revealed that boys felt safer at school than girls. 84% of male students indicated that they felt safe at school compared to 49% of female students. Furthermore, though 31% of the females indicated they felt unsafe in the school, none of the males felt unsafe.
Clearly, when compared to male students, female students do not feel safe or free at school. Improvements are needed in the implementation of educational policies to ensure that all girls are able to pursue education in a school environment that is free from violence. This demands greater collaboration among school leaders, whose understanding of basic education and gender equity in education policies is therefore important.
Shared leadership
This study also established that the leaders of the two schools were instrumental in promoting discipline and peace in the schools by working with the teachers, students and the school board. This type of approach is known as shared leadership in which all stakeholders take joint ownership of issues like school discipline. In order for such practices to be more sustainable, each leader must be fully aware of the relevant policies that provide the foundational basis for all school leaders to promote gender equity in education. Policies related to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and gender equity are the cornerstone and building blocks for many countries that ratified a commitment to advance the participation, protection and engagement of girls and women in all spheres of development, including education and schools.
This study revealed that all the school leaders were fully aware and understood well the concepts of the MDGs, UBEP, and other gender equity policies. Subsequently they became responsive to sustaining and promoting the equal participation of school-age girls to attend schools in a milieu free from violence. Such a high level of understanding by school leaders in valuing education as everyone’s right is critical.
Affirmation of girls’ rights to education
The school leaders fully understood the importance of girls’ rights to education, irrespective of their sex, age, religion, ethnicity, tribal affiliations and nationality. However, the students had mixed views. Most stated that girls have the right to pursue education free from being harassed, violated or threatened physically, sexually or psychologically. 66% of the students agreed that girls have equal rights to education. However, 25% indicated that education is only sometimes the right of girls.
The interview data for the rural school in Central Province highlighted how, more generally, schools in the rural parts of PNG experience problems in delivering basic education proficiently, as highlighted by the head teacher. In these areas, despite beautifully crafted government education policies, the delivery of education services is still hampered by poor road infrastructure, electricity, health and, most importantly, educational services. The government needs to play an active role in sustaining, leading, facilitating and promoting equal education opportunities through adequate investment in school infrastructure, roads, teacher training and staff development initiatives, and educational resources like teaching aids, if the government is serious in seeing ratified educational policies become reality, particularly in rural areas.
Policies are mere plans of actions adopted by a state. What matters most is the effective and sustainable implementation of plans through concerted government investment in policy-enabling factors.
The study’s focus was on the effectiveness of school leaders in addressing VAG/W and its relevance for the government’s UBE policy implementations in PNG. PNG is a highly patrilineal or male-oriented country. In such a situation, VAG/W is intimately linked to deeply entrenched social norms such as values, beliefs, attitudes, behaviors and practices, making it extremely difficult for school leaders to address. Female students face many challenges, including an unsafe environment and a belief among some students that they do not have the same right to education as boys. Despite these challenges, this study affirmed that school leaders have understood girls’ educational rights and are now employing significant approaches such as school policies to tackle VAG/W at their schools. Schools differ in terms of their level of understanding of policy interventions and conventions on girls’ rights to education. Some schools and school leaders are performing better than others. Overall the study revealed that there was strong leadership will in addressing VAG/W and most school leaders valued the notion of girls’ right to education.
This blog is based on the author’s Master’s thesis, which can be accessed here.
About the author/s
Pes Wilson
Pes Wilson is a lecturer of Social Science at Divine Word University. He has a Master’s Degree in Education by research from the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Previously he worked with the National Research Institute (NRI). | https://devpolicy.org/gender-based-violence-and-basic-education-in-png-20191002/?print=print |
eSN: How do you view the current state of educational technology in America’s K-12 schools?
Bush: Used properly, technology offers the promise of individualized learning, provides access to rich reservoirs of information, and facilitates communication among students, teachers, parents, and experts. For example, parents can monitor their child’s progress from home; schools can create links with sister schools around the globe; and teachers can enable simulations of math and science concepts.
Currently, the federal government invests about $3 billion in educational technology through a wide range of programs to help our schools. Among these is the Federal Communications Commission’s $2.25 billion Schools and Libraries (“eRate”) program, which helps provide affordable access to advanced telecommunications services for all eligible schools and libraries in the United States. In addition, the Department of Education spends more than $730 million on eight programs under Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act each year.
These programs have sped the deployment of computer hardware and internet access to our nation’s schools. By 1999, 95 percent of public schools had internet access, up from only 35 percent just five years earlier. And the FCC reports that 63 percent of public school classrooms have internet access, while 82 percent of the country’s public schools and more than half of the country’s public libraries have received discounted services under the eRate program.
It is far from clear, however, whether the federal investment is actually having an impact on educational achievement. A 1999 Education Testing Service study stated, “The purpose of providing technology to schools is to improve student academic performance and other educational outcomes, not to provide state-of-the-art equipment for its own sake.” I believe we need practical solutionsnot just theories and cosmetic changes.
Gore: Providing all of our young people with an outstanding education is a top national priority requiring national leadership. A fundamental challenge for our public schools is to help every child reach the high standards needed for success in today’s economy, society, and democracy.
The investments in our children’s technology are already paying off. More than a million classrooms have been connected through the eRate program. Now, 95 percent of public schools have some access to the internet, compared to 35 percent in 1994. And we have increased the number of classrooms connected to the internet 20 timesfrom 3 percent to more than 60 percent of classrooms. Today, the eRate is helping about 38 million children in more than 80 percent of our public schools. It is also benefiting half of our libraries.
Beyond the eRate, federal investments in educational technology have gone from under $30 million a year to more than $900 million as proposed in our budgeta 30-fold increase. We have made stunning progress in getting computers to children in the classroom, too. In 1994, 35 students had to share one multimedia computer. Today, less than 10 students have to share a multimedia computer.
There is still much to do. We have to finish the job of connecting our classrooms. We need to make sure that all our teachers have the skills they need to incorporate technology into learning, and we need to take advantage of the unique opportunities that technology brings to the classroomlike personalized education and better communications with parents.
But this isn’t about connecting kids to technology, it’s about connecting them to a whole new world of learning and opportunity. Today, millions of children can go to school, turn on a computer, reach a hand across the keyboard, and reach a library of information on the internet that is arguably larger than the Library of Congress.
eSN: What do you feel are some of the most pressing technology issues facing K-12 schools today?
Bush: I believe the greatest challenges facing educational technology are the lack of adequate teacher training, high administrative costs, and inflexible rules and requirements imposed on local schools. The same 1999 Education Testing Service study recommended that federal policy makers increase their efforts to ensure that teachers are properly trained to use the computers and target teacher training efforts at high-poverty urban and rural schools. While spending on technology has increased 25 percent over the previous year, investment in teacher training has increased just 5 percent.
According to another report, “the vast majority of K-12 teachers are novice or completely inexperienced internet and computer users.” The National Center of Education Statistics’ survey reports that only 20 percent of America’s teachers feel prepared to use new computer applications and know how to integrate them into their classrooms. In addition, only one in five teachers knew of lists of recommended education software published by districts or states. Only one in 10 had found software that was tied to academic standards issued by districts and states.
The federal effort in educational technology is balkanized, inflexible, and administratively burdensome. If a school wants to receive funding for software development, it must fill out an application for the Software Development Program. If, instead, a school wants to receive funding for teacher training, it must fill out a separate application for the Middle Schools Teacher Training program. If a school or library wants to use federal funds for access to the internet, it must apply to the FCC; to obtain computer hardware to make that access meaningful, a school or library must go to other sources. And these applications are all evaluated separately, despite the fact that the overall effectiveness of these technology programs is interdependent.
The inflexible rules of the Schools and Libraries program are particularly onerous: the catalog of eligible equipment that can be purchased with eRate funds is 36 pages long. The eRate application and instructions are an additional 56 pages and take hundreds of hours to complete. Last year, the Schools and Libraries Division of the Universal Service Administrative Company, which distributes eRate funds, conducted two-day “regional training sessions” in seven cities, dedicated solely to teaching school administrators how to fill out these forms. The eRate program requires more training to fill out federal forms than many schools provide in technology training for their teachers.
Furthermore, schools are being punished for minor technical errors. [Earlier this year,] the FCC denied millions of dollars in federal funding to hundreds of schools in Oklahoma and other states because the schools had listed on their applications a service provider employee as the primary contact instead of a school employee. The Cranberry School in rural Pennsylvania lost $17,000 in eRate dollars because it mistakenly filled out one box. The superintendent of the school stated, “Everyone in our area is being charged to support technology in schools, but schools are being left out based on technicalities.”
These inflexible rules also limit the services and equipment that qualify for federal funds. For example, in addition to being prevented from using eRate funds to purchase computer equipment, schools are also prevented from purchasing and installing as separate components either microwave or digital radio systems that can deliver high-speed internet access at low cost. Finally, the inflexible rules penalize states such as Iowa and Washington that have already independently developed high-speed services.
Gore: The most pressing technology issue facing our public schools is to finish wiring every classroom to the internet and train students and teachers to use information technology to individualize learning and bridge the digital divide. We must undertake a new national effort to provide basic skills in new technology, including a major initiative to achieve computer literacy for every child by the end of the eighth grade. I would expand teacher training in effectively using the internet in the classroom and deploy AmeriCorps national service corps members to teach and promote the internet in schools, libraries, and technology centers that need them the most. In addition, we must make the best educational software available to every school so that all students and teachers will be able to use computers and internet access to the fullest.
eSN: If elected president, what measures do you plan to take to address the digital divide?
Bush: In order to improve the effectiveness of our nation’s technology education and close the digital divide, I want to provide schools maximum flexibility to use educational technology funds. By establishing a single technology program, we could ensure that schools no longer have to submit multiple grant applications and incur the associated administrative burdens and costs to obtain educational technology funding. Furthermore, a single program will facilitate comprehensive and integrated educational technology strategies that target the specific needs of individual schools. In fact, the American Association of School Administrators, representing more than 14,000 superintendents and public school leaders, issued the following statement in connection with legislation in the U.S. Congress that would consolidate existing Department of Education technology programs:
“[This] provides school districts with the benefit and convenience of a single federal technology program. For the last several years, our members have requested a single source of technology assistance. The numerous technology competitive grant programs in ESEA are frequently so narrowly targeted that local districts find it difficult to obtain funding … schools will have increased flexibility to buy technology resources that best fit their needs.”
In order to give schools increased flexibility in the use of federal educational technology funds, as president I would establish a $3 billion “Enhancing Education through Technology Fund.” By working with Congress to create this single fund, which would combine the FCC’s eRate program and eight of the Title III education technology programs under the Department of Education, we can streamline the process and cut overhead and time.
In addition, I would free schools from federal restrictions and end bureaucratic red tape by removing detailed federal regulations, allowing schools to have maximum flexibility in using federal technology funds for such activities as teacher training, software purchase and development, and system integration. And I would continue to give priority to the most disadvantaged schools. I would ensure that federal funds are distributed based on need, giving priority to rural schools and schools serving high percentages of low-income students.
I also think it is important that the federal government provides schools with information on the uses of educational technology with the goal of advancing student performance. Currently, the federal government provides educational technology to public schools and libraries, but it does not conduct research into the effectiveness of such technology in advancing learning and student achievement. The 1999 ETS study raises critical questions, such as: “What types of investment in technology most improve academic achievement? Does technology affect important educational outcomes at all?” The report concludes, “Unfortunately, for all the investment in educational technology, there is a surprising lack of hard data on its effects … the federal government does not collect national data expressly for the purpose of evaluating [how] educational technology [affects achievement].”
In order to collect research data on the effectiveness of educational technology, as president I would provide $65 million in new funding annually to the Department of Education’s Office of Education Research and Improvement. With that, the federal government will perform its basic research function by providing funding to universities and other research institutions to study ways in which educational technology can boost student performance and close the achievement gap.
Across the country, thousands of schools, foundations, and community centers are working to use technology to improve student achievement. At the same time, public and private efforts are providing more than $7 billion annually for educational technology. This significant effort is generating thousands of educational technology laboratories nationwide. Unfortunately, there is far too little sharing of information among schools, educators, and research institutions about the most promising uses of technology to close the achievement gap. For example, a recent survey by Education Week indicated that “educators are struggling to find high-quality software and web sites … [and] matching software instruction with state or district curricula is a moderate or big problem.”
In order to ensure that schools and educators have the latest information on the tested uses of technology to improve student achievement, as president I would provide an additional $15 million in new funding annually to establish the “Education and Technology Clearinghouse.” The Clearinghouse will collect and disseminate information on effective, research-based educational technology programs, best educational technology practices, and the latest research studies. With this new data collectively added and stored to existing knowledge, educators can more effectively and directly teach their students with tried and true formats and information.
Gore: I believe that we must redouble our efforts to close the digital divide in this country. The internet has been a major force behind our current economic prosperity, and we need to make sure that all Americans have the skills and access to technology to succeed in our new economy. In the information age, computer literacy is not just an important skillit is a fundamental civil right. As president, I would not be satisfied until every American has learned the ABCs of the internet: access, basic skills, and high-quality content.
Unfortunately, low-income, rural, and minority families are still much less likely to have access to computers and the internet. As president, I would launch a new crusade to make internet access as universal as telephone access in every American household. I would encourage public-private partnerships and make major new investments in high-speed and satellite technologies to bring affordable internet access to the hardest-to-reach urban and rural communities. In the meantime, we must make sure every low-income community has a technology center where both children and adults can access the internet and learn to use technology. | https://www.eschoolnews.com/2000/10/01/esn-exclusive-gore-and-bush-where-i-stand-on-eschools/ |
Education quality is referred to the sixth Education for All (EFA) goal that aims at “improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills”. The EFA goals have handed over to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The second and sixth EFA goals have been combined into the sole education goal which is embedded in the seventeen SDGs, that is to “Ensure equitable and inclusive quality education and lifelong learning for all by 2030”. This is an evident demonstration of the importance accorded to both access and quality education across the world. Rwanda like most countries worldwide, takes quality education as a benchmark to carry its education system into the post-2015 agenda.
In the past 15 years, Rwanda noted an impressive growth in enrolment, particularly at the primary education level as a result of ongoing policy developments and strategies such as school construction, teacher recruitment, capitation grants, teaching and learning materials, girls’ education, increased parent involvement and government encouragement towards private sector’s investment (MINEDUC, 2015). Moreover, considerable progress was observed in terms of the increased number of schools, both primary and secondary, particularly as the universal primary education is considered as the foundation for the further development of secondary education. A significant increase in secondary schools emerges since 2009 due to the Nine Years Basic Education program of local construction to extend primary schools for lower secondary classes followed by the Twelve Years Basic Education approach for upper secondary education. Recently, the focus on education has shifted from access to quality. In Rwanda like most countries across the world, the decline of quality manifested in low pass rates, high dropout rates, underdeveloped skills where pupils leave schools still unable to read, write and unready for self-employment or being employed (Shoko, 2010; Michaelowa, 2001). The fall of quality in education turned to be a worldwide problem working against the United Nations movement for Universal primary education aimed at achieving education for all (Sperling, 2001; Lockeed et al 1991; Dorsey, 1989).
The EDPRS2 points out that the quality of primary education has not been able to match the pace of improvements in access (MINECOFIN, 2013: 80). The internal efficiency analysis identified key indicators reflecting some challenges in the education system, which include the stress on resources attributable to high repetition rates and low retention (higher dropout). These indicators in particular point to the quality of the education presently delivered as a contributing factor.
In view of the above, it appears that the achievements of the access to education represent somehow the threats of the quality of education. Consequently, the challenges of the education access are closely linked to those of the quality education which handles aspects like teacher training and motivation, instructional leadership and mentorship, teaching and learning language competency, availability and adaptability of facilities and teaching and learning materials, awareness around parental responsibilities as well as assessment strategies such as the Learning Achievement in Rwandan Schools (LARS) Study, which provide valuable data to enhance effective teaching and learning in schools. This paper is articulated around three sections: concept of education quality, factors of success, challenges and strategies for the future.
1. Concept of education quality
Definition and dimensions
In much contemporary discourse on education, the word quality is frequently mentioned, although it is rarely defined. The word quality is often used without explaining what quality is, as reflected in the following statements: “Quality…. You know what it is, yet you do not know what it is. But some things are better than others, that is, they have more quality. Bur when you try to say what the quality is, apart from the things that have it, it all goes poof!”….“Quality is like love: everybody talks about it and everybody knows he/she talking about. Everybody knows and feels when there is love. Everybody recognizes it, but when we try to define it we are empty-handed. The same counts for the concept of quality. There is no general consensus on the concept of quality….”(IUCEA, 2010a). While the general concept of quality is difficult, education quality is much more complex. When defining the quality of education one chooses the aspect of education that will be the focus of attention. Since education has many purposes and components, questions regarding quality may reasonably be posed about any important aspect of a system: infrastructure, school buildings, administration, teacher training, educational materials, teaching, or student achievements. Although it seems very difficult to reach a consensual definition of education quality, one can say that an education quality is the one that attains the set learning outcomes. At each level of the educational system, there are specific learning outcomes and it is necessary to ensure that learners have achieved them before they can progress towards the next level or be certified.
Broadly speaking, quality in education, can be viewed as a set of elements within the education system that are believed to lead to better student outcomes, including measurable indicators of student learning. Quality education involves the sufficient and effective supply of direct resources to schools (infrastructure, teachers, and teaching and learning materials), pedagogical support, a supportive school climate, and the effective management and administration of the education system. Student learning is also influenced by the extent and nature of parent and community support to schools, as well as by the socioeconomic characteristics of children and their families. Equity is yet another dimension of quality, because any education system would be challenged to claim it offers quality education without addressing parity and equality imbalances (World Bank, 2011). According to the Quality Improvement Working Group of Rwanda, the meaning of quality of education is captured by the following definition, which has evolved from EDPRS 1 and 2:
“A quality education is defined as all children leaving school equipped with the skills, knowledge, attitudes and values needed for Rwanda’s economic and social development and for their own further educational and social development.” (World Bank, 2011: 90) Today, education quality appears to be a multi-dimensional concept and there is a considerable consensus around its basic dimensions. According to the International Working Group on Education organized by UNICEF (2000a), quality education includes:
- Learners who are healthy, well-nourished and ready to participate and learn, and are supported in learning by their families and communities;
- Trained and motivated teachers (the most crucial ingredients in the provision of quality education);
- Content that is reflected in relevant curricula and materials for the acquisition of basic skills, especially in the areas of literacy, numeracy and skills for life, and knowledge in areas as gender, health, nutrition, HIV/AIDS prevention and peace;
- Processes through which trained teachers use a child-centred teaching approach in well-managed classrooms and schools and are able to facilitate Active Learning in the classroom;
- Environments that are healthy, safe, protective and gender-sensitive, and provide adequate resources and facilities;
- Outcomes that encompass knowledge, skills and attitudes, and are linked to national goals for education and positive participation in society.
There is a need to add on the above six dimensions a seventh one: effective school leadership. In the tentative of establishing a hierarchy among the indicators of the education quality, scholars like Leithwood et al. (2007) wrote that “School leadership is only second to classroom teaching as an influence on student learning. Leadership has significant effects on the quality of school organization and on student learning”. Muijs and Reynolds (2001) added that “Both individual teacher and school leadership are of a great importance. They are the essential change agents who will have significant influence on whether a school will develop into a ‘learning organization’ or not”. Definitely, all the dimensions as spelt out above are interrelated, and a serious deficit in one is likely to have implications for quality in others. Reasons for education quality Nowadays, so much attention is paid to quality. Although attention to quality has always been part of the academic tradition, it is now the outside world that emphasizes the need for explicit attention to quality. The following among other reasons can be given for Quality Assurance (IUCEA, 2010b):
- Train graduates who meet the needs of the society: are we delivering a “product” that is wanted? Are we proud of our graduates?
- The labour market expects schools to provide the students with adequate knowledge, skills and attitudes important for the right job fulfillment.
- Need to offer our graduates the opportunity to enter the world market (world is becoming a global village), but under the condition that the degree qualifications have quality.
- Need for “consumer protection”: our students and their parents are spending a lot of time and money on their education. Therefore, they have the right to receive a quality education.
2. Factors of success
The type of indicators typically used to identify quality may prove this out: numbers of qualified teachers, pupil-teacher ratios, number of computers, number of students passing national examinations, etc. This section presents the factors for progress towards education quality in Rwanda. It looks at the contribution of national policies, government funding over the EFA period (2000-2015), and various quality-standards programs and initiatives that have been implemented by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with development partners and civil society to achieve the objectives education quality.
2.1 Policy context
The Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy 2 (2013-18) notes that, “the quality of primary education has not been able to match the pace of improvements in access,” (MINECOFIN, 2013: 80). It emphasizes that the key challenge for the sector during EDPRS2 is in consolidating, advancing and accelerating the quality improvement measures already made. Interventions during EDPRS 2 are expected to further reduce average class sizes and pupil-teacher ratios, improve curriculum supported by better and more readily available teaching and learning materials, and improve examination and assessment systems. Improvements in the quality of education are anticipated with a higher calibre of new teacher recruits together with better trained and equipped practicing teachers who are well supported and managed.
Mandated by EDPRS2, the Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) 2013-18 focuses on improved quality and learning outcomes across primary and secondary education as one of its 10 key strategies along with equitable access; special needs education; teacher supply; TVET; higher education; school readiness; science, technology and innovation; adult basic education; and administrative and management support services (MINEDUC, 2013).
2.2 Education financing supports progress Education financing, as much as it has contributed to increased equitable access for children since 2000, is linked with because of its paramount importance to the further development of quality teaching and learning in Rwanda’s schools.
Providing education services in a resource-constrained environment is one of the largest challenges, and thus government funding is an important pillar of the education sector. The government’s commitment to improving access to and the quality of education in Rwanda is evident in the increasing trend of funding to the sector. The education sector’s funding has increased year after year to attempt to meet the growth of student populations, school expansion, teacher and staff recruitment and remuneration and teaching resources. As a result of the implementation of 9YBE and 12YBE programs, secondary education expenditures surpassed primary education in the 2012/13 financial year as unit costs per student increased to meet demand.
2.3 Quality standards for primary and secondary education
This section highlights the quality standards developed for primary and secondary education, which are approved by the cabinet (UNICEF, 2000b; MINEDUC, 2009; Republic of Rwanda, 2009). These standards have become a driving force for the improvement of the education system, and in particular, the improvement of quality in education for Rwanda. Examples of previous, current and prospective initiatives are given for each of the standards: 1. Healthy learners, both physically and psychologically, ready to participate and learn, and supported in learning by their families and communities
– MINEDUC is encouraging all communities and secondary schools to operate school feeding programs with local resources to provide a healthy meal or snacks during the school day.
– Some schools provide school meals for students and teachers where private funding exists. Teachers in some schools pay a portion of their wages for local catering especially primary teachers who are working double shifts (UNICEF, 2013).
– From 2003 to 2012, the World Food Program (WFP) supported school feeding programs in 300 schools. Since that time, WFP has been downsizing its participation in response to local school feeding programs and in order to divert resources to other priority areas.
– The identification, referral and treatment of some children with disabilities (CWD) have enabled them to access and continue through primary and secondary education.
– There is a renewed focus on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) awareness by REB, development partners and NGOs with annual rehabilitation and construction of WASH facilities at schools.
2. Trained, motivated and well supported teachers using learner centered interactive teaching approaches in well managed classrooms
– International research indicates that the two most important influencers in student achievement are the classroom teacher (direct) and the school head teacher (indirect) (Day & Sammons, 2013). Initiatives with international partners have made strong efforts to improve pre-service teacher training (PRESET) and, in particular, in-service teacher training (INSET) for teachers along with in-service leadership and management courses for Head Teachers and Directors of Studies.
– The teacher education system was reformed to integrate primary and secondary PRESET under the University of Rwanda-College of Education (UR-CE) in 2010. This includes two Colleges of Education (secondary PRESET) and thirteen TTCs (primary PRESET) around the country. Improved coordination and delivery of teacher education is the intended outcome of this organizational consolidation.
– INSET remains with REB; it involves school-based and off-site training programs, many of which take place during holiday periods. Instructors are Teacher Development and Management (TDM) personnel, School-Based Mentors (SBM) and development and civil society partners. The priority areas have been Science and Mathematics, English proficiency and learner-centred pedagogy.
– The SBM program is working with schools to provide classroom teachers with English language and teaching methodology support. In some schools, SBMs are working in collaboration with partners such as VSO, UNICEF, USAID, JICA, Drakkar Ltd., and IEE to strengthen instruction and assessment.
– REB has partnered with JICA on the ‘Strengthening Mathematics and Science in Secondary Education’ (SMASSE) and ‘School-based Collaborative Teacher Training’ (SBCT) projects.
– Special Needs Education has gained a higher profile as a way of reaching those CWD who do not attend school. UR-CE has developed a specialist program to create a cadre of special needs education (SNE) teachers. The SNE working group has been supporting teacher training, resource provision and CWD initiatives.
– The results-based aid program (RBA) supported by DFID provides incentives to the Ministry of Education for increasing the cohort of English proficient teachers.
3. Skilful assessment to facilitate learning and reduce inequities
- National leaving examinations are conducted at P6, S3 and S6 primarily as a method of determining a student’s progression to further education. More students are passing at higher rates than previously, especially girls. EFA Review respondents (MINEDUC, 2015) indicate that these are ‘high stakes’ examinations impact on decisions about some students continuing their education – higher drop out rates in P5 may indicate a reluctance on the part of lower performing students to sit for the P6 examination.
- The Ministry of Education conducted the Learning Achievement in Rwandan Schools (LARS) in 2010 to measure the literacy and numeracy levels of P3 students. LARS II was conducted in 2014 with P2 and P5 students in order to gain a broader picture of literacy and numeracy competencies. The findings are being integrated into primary programming and pedagogy to improve effective teaching and learning.
- The proposed continuous assessment reforms linked with the competency-based curriculum will balance subject knowledge with higher order thinking and learning (understanding, application, analysis, evaluation and creativity).
4. Content and materials that reflect the relevant curricula, including textbooks, readers and other didactic material, including material made from locally available resources
– Rwanda has found the current curriculum less than relevant to the nation’s vision for development (Vision 2020, EDPRS2). Teaching and learning materials, while aligned with the traditional curriculum and made more available through the school-based textbook acquisition mechanism, tend to focus on subject knowledge reinforced by periodic national examinations. REB is currently involved with UNICEF and other partners in the revision of the curriculum to meet modern requirements.
– Through USAID funding, the ‘Literacy, Language and Learning (L3)’ program has created high quality, evidence-based teaching and learning materials (print and audio) for use in literacy and numeracy instruction in early primary classes in public schools nationwide. Video-based teacher training supports effective incorporation of these new resources in the revised curriculum.
– Save the Children’s pre-primary readers sets are creating learner and language appropriate readers for use in early primary classes throughout all schools. These learning resources will continue to be integrated into the curriculum reforms over the next few years to extend students’ reading experience and practice. – Local publishers are receiving capacity building from development partners and NGOs to further develop the domestic publishing industry and authorship as a catalyst for Rwandan production of quality reading and learning materials,
– New syllabuses, teaching and learning materials (teacher guides, textbooks, visuals, manipulatives, media, etc.) will be produced for use in the implementation phases of the new curriculum.
5. Acquisition of positive values and basic skills, such as: literacy; numeracy; critical life skills such as problem solving, lifelong learning, and communication; IT skills; and healthy living, including HIV/AIDS prevention and environmental education
– National campaigns such as ‘Rwanda Reads’ supported by government, development partners, and non-governmental and faith-based organizations underline the importance and relevance of literacy in modern Rwanda, and aim to support a culture of reading.
– Schools have been encouraged to create active classroom reading corners and school libraries to increase reading experiences and literacy among young people and their families. Donor-supported mobile libraries, such as those implemented by US Peace Corps and L3 are also increasing access to reading materials.
– Peace and values education is incorporated in the civics curriculum to support students’ personal growth and contributions to the peace and security of society.
– The one laptop per child (OLPC) program was targeting to distribute 250,000 units in 407 primary schools by late 2014. This government-funded initiative provides primary students with basic IT experiences prior to entering secondary school or transitioning into vocational training centres.
3. Current challenges for quality in education
Based upon Ministry of Education documents, respondents’ perspectives (MINEDUC, 2015) and proceedings of the recent Joint Review of Education Sector, the major challenges that currently face the education sector in relation to quality of education in primary and secondary schools include the following:
‘Quality’ consensus: Many people are still not clear about what ‘quality’ looks like in terms of curriculum, instruction, management and outcomes. This lack of clarity faced by many jurisdictions, not only Rwanda, contributes to the ongoing retention issues. A clear and well-understood definition is required to guide the further development of a relevant and rigorous education system.
Teacher motivation: Self-esteem and morale are at a low amongst many teachers (Bennell and Ntagaramba, 2008). Research in developing and developed countries tells us that teachers are the most important element of generating effective student outcomes. To this end, the teaching profession must be supported and encouraged by all stakeholders in important ways – the social contract must be understood and respected by all parties.
Relevant curriculum: Rwanda has recognized that primary and secondary curricula needed to better align with society’s needs. Social and economic development, as portrayed by the EDPRS2, requires relevant and rigorous education aligned to public and private sector requirements. In this respect, the Ministry of Education implemented the competence-based curriculum in 2016.
English language as the medium of instruction: This is a well-recognized challenge in schools. It is a long-term initiative that requires continuous investment and assessment, patience and a strong willingness on the part of adults (policy makers, teachers, parents, leaders and managers, mentors, etc.) to support their children. The professional development of teachers is critical to this initiative.
Professional development: Teachers tend to teach the way they were taught, which reinforces the traditional ‘stand and deliver’ style seen in many classrooms.
A more balanced approach to effective teaching and learning integrating teacher- and learner-centred pedagogy, as appropriate, will enable students to be more actively involved in their own learning. Teachers are to be supported by Head Teachers who are proficient in instructional leadership and mentorship. A strong focus on the continued development of professional competencies within schools (head teachers, teachers, parent-teacher committees-PTCs), district and sector education offices (DEOs and SEOs), and the Ministry of Education (central, REB, WDA) will contribute to improved outcomes at all levels. A strong PRESET system should be complemented by effective continuous INSET. Investments in personnel are critical to achieving EFA and Ministry of Education goals.
Retention rates: Retention rates, especially at the primary level, are well below expected levels acting as a barrier to secondary education and generating higher system costs diverting funds from system improvement efforts. Dropout rates continue to remain relatively static, due in part to the quality and relevance of the current education system. Improved retention rates in primary education in order to increase efficiencies in flow-through (survival rates) to secondary education will reduce operating costs within the system.
Data management: In a country that champions the development of ICT, enhanced and integrated data management systems are vital to provide comprehensive and relevant information in a timely manner with which to diagnose the impact of policy and programming on student learning outcomes
4. Strategies for the future
The challenges noted in section 3 above provide some suggestions for improving the situation relative to quality in education. The ESSP 2013-2018 has identified ten sector outcomes, two of which pertain specifically to quality in basic education:
1. Improved quality and learning outcomes across primary and secondary education
2. Improved supply of qualified, suitably skilled and motivated teachers and trainers to meet the demands of expanding education access
- Focus on teacher motivation through professionalization, training, working conditions and resources – they are at the core of quality education delivery.
- Adopt and implement the draft Teacher Development and Management Framework (2014) in improving teacher welfare and conditions of service – contract conditions, remuneration, working conditions, housing, loan schemes, etc.
- Child friendly schools (CFS) training for district & sector personnel, pre- & in-service teachers, head teachers, PTCs, etc. – application of the CFS approach through on-site mentoring, coaching and inspection
- Head teachers or ‘master’ teachers from different subject-area departments to provide instructional leadership and mentorship
- Develop English language competency amongst teachers on a continuous basis to ensure the quality of teaching and learning post-P3 levels
- Ensure age appropriate readability levels for all print materials in classrooms
- Continue work with parents & communities by MINEDUC and partners to increase awareness around parental responsibilities
- Increase actual and expended budgets to ensure improved equitable learning outcomes
- Include an indicator(s) to capture improvements in learning achievement (are they only about examination scores?) and ensure its monitoring on an annual basis
- Ensure that District Development Plans reflect the priorities of the ESSP 2013-18 in a balanced manner (i.e., a sharp focus on repetition and dropout issues is critical to the expansion of secondary education and future investments in early childhood care and education-ECCE, Science and Technology, and TVET)
- Ensure a strong focus on coordinated PRESET and INSET professional development grounded in a clear and achievable implementation plan
- Implement effectively the current national competence-based curriculum review with a view to instituting a cyclical revision schedule in the future
- Continue to support assessment strategies such as the Learning Achievement in Rwandan Schools (LARS) Study, which provide valuable data to enhance effective teaching and learning in schools.
- The following strategies may be taken to increasing quality of education.
Conclusion
Research tells that one of the most critical elements of effective teaching and learning at all levels are well-trained and motivated teachers. Teachers are at the core of quality education and the relationship between teachers and students is critical to any improvements in education. This means that all countries, rich or poor, have to ensure that every child has access to well-trained and motivated teachers. UNESCO (2014) has listed ten strategies based on the evidence of successful policies, programs and initiatives from a wide range of countries and educational environments. By implementing these reforms, countries can ensure that all children and young people, especially the disadvantaged, receive the good quality education they need to realize their potential and lead fulfilling lives. These strategies are as follows: fill teachers’ gaps, attract the best candidates to teaching, train teachers to meet the needs of all children, prepare teacher educators and mentors to support teachers, get teachers to where they are needed most, use a competitive career and pay structure to retain the best teachers, improve teacher governance to maximize impact, equip teachers with innovative curricula to improve learning, develop classrooms assessments to help teachers identify and support students at risk of not learning and provide better data on trained teachers.
One of the other lessons learnt from the 2015 EFA review (MINEDUC, 2015) is the crucial role played by both parents and school leaders in guiding and shaping the future lives of children. It is assumed that a concerted effort between teachers, parents, community and school leaders with the support of all stakeholders including the Government, Development Partners, NGOs and Faith-based Organizations, would contribute to promote and maintain the quality of education at the desired standards.
References
Bennell, P. & Ntagaramba, J. (2008). Teacher Motivation and Incentives in Rwanda: A Situational Analysis and Recommended Priority Actions. Kigali: Rwanda Education Board.
Day, C., Sammons, P., Hopkins, D., Harris, A., Leithwood, K., Gu, Q., et al. (2009). The Impact of School Leadership on Pupil Outcomes. London: Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Dorsey J. B. (1989), Educational Development and Reform in Zimbabwe: Comparative Education Review, 33, (1), 40-58.
Inter University Council for East Africa-IUCEA (2010a). A roadmap to quality: handbook for quality assurance in higher education, volume 1. Kampala:IUCEA IUCEA (2010b). A roadmap to quality: handbook for quality assurance in higher education, volume 4. Kampala:IUCEA
Leithwood, K. et al. (2007). Seven strong claims about successful school leadership. 28(1), 27-42
Lockheed, M.E. and A.M. Verspoor (1991). Improving Primary Education in Developing Countries. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the World Bank.
MINECOFIN (2013). Economic Development & Poverty Reduction Strategy II (2013-2018). Kigali: MINECOFIN.
Michaelowa, K. (2001). Primary educational quality in Francophone Sub Saharan A: Determinants of learning Achievement and efficiency considerations. World Development, 29, (10), 1699-1716.
MINEDUC (2009) . Delivering Quality Basic Education for All and Setting-Up of the Quality Implementation Working Group. Kigali: Ministry of Education. MINEDUC (2013). Education Sector Strategic Plan 2013/14-2017/18. Kigali: Ministry of Education.
MINEDUC (2015). Rwanda EFA 2015 review. Kigali: MINEDUC
Muijs, D. & Reynolds, D. (2001). Effective teaching evidence and practice. London: Falmer Press.
Republic of Rwanda (2009). Presidential Order No 48/01 of 10/08/2009 establishing quality standards in education for nursery, primary and secondary schools in Official Gazette No 33 bis of 17/08/2009. Kigali: Prime Minister’s Office
Sperling, G. (2001). Toward Universal education: Making a promise, and keeping it, Foreign Affairs, 5(4), 7-13.
Shoko, B. (2010). Education Transition Fund Revives Hope for Zimbabwe’s children. Harare: UNICEF Zimbabwe Country Office.
UNICEF (2000a) Defining Quality in Education. The International Working Group on Education, Florence, Italy in: Working Paper Series. New York: UNICEF.
UNESCO (2014). Teaching and Learning: Achieving quality for all, EFA Global Monitoring Report (Summary) 2013/4. Paris: UNESCO.
UNICEF (2000b). Delivering Quality Basic Education, a Concept Note. Kigali: UNICEF.
UNICEF (2013). Child Friendly Basic Education Schools Assessment Study. Kigali: UNICEF. | http://snecrwanda.org/education-quality-in-rwanda-factors-of-success-challenges-and-future-prospects/ |
The Federation of Icelandic Industries takes part in planning vocational and technical education along with educational authorities and various organisations. The federation has a representative on the board of the educational organisations of industry which have for a number of years organised continuing education for tradesmen and managers.
- SI own and run with others: the National Center for Construction Education, the Icelandic National Council for Education and Training in the Metal Industry, the Graphic Arts Institute and The Educational Board of the Food and Catering Branches.
- Courses for untrained workers. SI have representatives on the board of Starfsafl which is a fund for the educational support of untrained workers in the greater Reykjavik area and on the board of the Occupational Council.
- SI promote the importance of technical and vocational training in conjunction with, among others, the Society of Technical Colleges.
- The value of industry, education and jobs is promoted at every level of the educational system, for example through the idwebsite IDAN.IS.
- SI have signed an agreement to support a position at the University of Iceland.
- Occupational work groups and school boards are working towards a better technical and vocational education tailored to the needs of industry.
- SI is a member of an organisation which purpose is to improve technical and vocational education and science teaching in schools.
- Education of foremen and middle managers is our task.
Education – cultivating human resources
The role of the education system is to cultivate people’s knowledge, intelligence and skills and thereby support economic prosperity. A strong education system links up human resource skills to the needs of business at any given time, with the emphasis on effectiveness and efficiency. The level of education of a society has a significant effect on its prosperity.
The Icelandic education system is facing many issues, with many different challenges to be met. It is important for there to be policies on future education in Iceland to enable Iceland’s human resources to match up to the best on offer. In addition, this future vision should only not be based on the new world view up ahead, but also set out the areas in which we wish to carve out our own niche, including education and skills. A high-quality industrial policy is the basis for decisions in this context in both the long and short term.
Background
While Iceland spends the most money relative to GDP on primary education of all OECD countries, performance indicators such as PISA reveal that Icelandic students considerably underperform as compared to their peers in other countries. Achievement in sciences has fallen over the last decade, and the proportion of students unable to read for their own benefit has risen considerably. Drop-out rates from secondary education are among the highest in the OECD, and fewer Icelandic secondary-school students opt for vocational and professional training than their peers in other OECD countries. Research shows that the study choices made by Icelandic students are often not in line with their interests, meaning that they end up following or are directed to the wrong study path. Investment in university education is low in comparison to other countries, despite the fact that the demand for university studies has increased considerably over recent decades. It is, however, a fact that more money is no guarantee of more success.
A skills mismatch has emerged in Iceland. On the one hand, there is a shortage of workers with vocational education. On the other, there is a shortage of people with scientific and technological qualifications to meet the needs of business in the 21st century. This impairs competitiveness of the human capital in comparison to other countries. Effective reforms are needed in the Icelandic education system to counter this crisis.
Future vision
The year is 2050. Differences in prosperity between countries stem from the different skills of their human resources, innovation, technology, craft and ingenuity. Technology has taken over jobs which are highly repetitive and are performed in a predictable and organised environment. However, many sectors based on craft and ingenuity continue to play an important role in the economy, despite the fact that skill requirements have developed. The innovation society has taken shape, but trades are still on a firm footing. The education system has developed to effectively and efficiently link up human-resource skills to the needs of the economy. Efforts are based on skills forecasts, employment policy and targeted development activities. The education system cultivates people’s knowledge, intelligence and skills, thereby promoting economic prosperity and quality of life.
Primary education focuses on analytical thinking, creativity, technology and methodology, in line with the skills characteristics of the jobs of the future. Innovative educational technology has taken over from traditional pedagogical techniques, with a concomitant increase in productivity and efficiency. Considerable efforts are made to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the fourth industrial revolution, while building on the strengths of Icelandic society relating to the country’s small size and level of flexibility.
Personalized studies, which capitalize on each person’s strengths and values is now a central feature of the Icelandic education system. In this way, the education system guides students on the right path in their secondary and university education and works with the skills of individuals. The system also offers numerous avenues and opportunities for foreign workers and students. Special focus is on re-education and training, career development, skills assessment and adult education, in step with rising life expectancy.
Possible improvements
The following three factors are essential to developing a future vision:
- An extensive consultation forum for industry, schools and authorities on future education policy.
- Targeted policy-making, perseverance and long-term vision across political party lines.
- Research on the characteristics of the Icelandic education system and gathering of improved data with international comparison in mind.
Objective 1
Getting more people with vocational training onto the labour market
- 20% of primary-school students to opt for vocational education by 2025 and 30% by 2030.
- Address the systemic problems of vocational training as regards study progress, graduation and post-study opportunities.
- Take targeted action to bolster the image of study and jobs linked to vocational training, including combating prejudice and image issues, and raise awareness of the importance of vocational training.
- Combat the gender stereotypes surrounding work in vocational training.
- Support rural areas by making study opportunities available locally, e.g. by raising the number of traineeships in the workplace, increasing funding and improving flexibility.
- Give greater weight to arts and crafts subjects in primary schools by reviewing the reference timetables for arts and crafts at that level.
- Ensure schools are following current criteria on arts and crafts in primary education at all times.
- Provide more focus on job and study presentations and make efforts to ensure that such presentations reflect both vocational training and academic study.
- Target efforts to come up with proposals for ways to reorganise study at the secondary-school level to ensure continuity between primary school and secondary school.This will better enable people to choose studies and jobs. Social factors, place of residence and employment experience will have less of an effect than now.A greater focus on a common educational background is useful for both vocational training and academic study.
Objective 2
Promoting innovation-driven economy for the future
- Proportion of university students graduating in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) to be 25% by 2025.
- Put greater focus on the skills of the future in the education system.
- Bolster and encourage innovation and innovative educational technology at all levels of education.
- Put greater focus on programming and science and technology subjects from the youngest levels of primary education.
Objective 3
Improving educational resources for those working in the labour market today
- Increase the offer of skills assessment in Icelandic and foreign languages.
- Improve resources for foreign workers, develop targeted skills assessment and lay the foundations for distance academic study.
- Review the regulatory framework for adult education and training to enable more employers to offer retraining and bring more leeway and flexibility to the system.
- Introduce study at vocational universities in co-operation with secondary schools and universities.
- Develop and introduce skills assessment at the university level.
Objective 4
Greater support for teachers’ working environment, teaching methods and teacher training
- Review teacher training with a view to shortening the length of the study to three years, plus one year of paid on-the-job training.
- Put greater focus on internal and external quality assessment in school activities.
- Define new criteria for teacher training in science and technology subjects.
- Review teacher qualification training for those teaching arts and crafts subjects part-time and those teaching trades in vocational training, with the aim of increasing the number of teachers with professional expertise in these jobs.
Objective 5
Improving dialogue between business and schools on necessary systemic changes and targeted decision-making
- Clamp down on drop-out rates in secondary schools, by means of analysis and measures at the primary-school level and close co-operation with business on presenting study and work opportunities.
- Review the role and powers of occupational boards and set up a solid consultation forum for business and schools with a clear purview.
- Ensure work conducted on skills forecasts and needs in the labour market follows a formal procedure for the country as a whole and individual regions.
- Put forth effort to effectively introduce a skills framework for Icelandic education, with the focus on skills criteria for jobs.
- Gather more information on the Icelandic education system, with a view to international comparison. | https://www.si.is/english/nr/1365 |
On 1st November 2019, SiERRAEYE organized its monthly debate on the motion: “Teachers are not responsible for the educational crisis in Sierra Leone.” The purpose of the debate was to provide an open platform for public discourse in favour and against the motion. In addition to the debate, SiERRAEYE also conducted a street survey in Freetown and interviewed 562 respondents to sound public opinion by asking various questions related to the general theme of education crisis in Sierra Leone.
Based on the arguments advanced at the debate, feedback from the survey and numerous consultations, SiERRAEYE proposes the following position to Government and all other actors involved in the education sector:
- Take urgent and immediate action to properly diagnose and find out the underlying causes of the poor showing of students in national exams especially the recently concluded WASSCE Exams;
- Comprehensively review the current education structure;
- Continue to take appropriate measures to ensure that the integrity of exams are not called into question and ensure that examination malpractices and unethical and corrupt practices in the education sector are eliminated;
- Greatly improve the conditions of service and training for teachers by developing and implementing standards and competencies for teachers and providing opportunities for continuous professional development;
- Ensure that all teachers are professionally qualified and trained, motivated, disciplined and equipped with the requisite resources to teach;
- Maintain clean and updated payroll records of teachers;
- Ensure that class sizes are reduced to help enhance and facilitate student achievement;
- Review the current curriculum and teaching methods to ensure the establishment of system that cultivates analytical skills and develops critical thinking;
- Set up or resuscitate Parent, Teacher and Student Associations and support them to play a greater role in the management of Schools;
- As part of Government’s decentralization efforts, delegate and support local governments to play a greater role in education in their area of operation;
- Institute an effective evaluation system including mechanisms to monitor teaching hours and proper school inspection system to help ensure that teachers follow lesson notes and complete the syllabus;
- Set up and/or restock libraries and internet cafes and develop information, communication technology capacities;
- Learn lessons from the Grammar School experience and why the school continues to excel amidst the declining standards in the country;
- Continue to provide adequate and timely funding for education;
- Refrain from politicizing the issue of education;
- Put particular emphasis on early childhood education including pre-schooling;
- Revise and or ensure full implementation of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) policy;
- Provide water and basic sanitation facilities in all schools;
- Provide balanced and regular meals for children attending Government schools;
- Inculcate the value of education in children and parents;
- Stress the importance of and encourage a culture of reading to foster the growth and development of knowledge;
- The Teaching Service Commission be made fully functional to perform its role to manage the affairs of teachers in order to improve their professional status and economic wellbeing and to effectively address issues of teacher recruitment and placement, harmonization of teaching standards and delivery, design programmes for in-service training for teachers and
- Treat the current education crisis in the country as a national security issue.
Adopted: By the Board of Directors of SiERRAEYE
Dated: | https://www.sierraeyemagazine.com/opinion/position-statement-on-the-education-crisis-in-sierra-leone/ |
4th June 2021
Earlier this week, the Department of Education announced that it had sought €66.5 million from the Next Generation EU fund and National Recovery and Resilience Plan 2021 to provide digital infrastructure and funding to schools.
The Department of Education’s proposal to the EU comprises two projects in the digital area: Project A aims to support high speed broadband connectivity in all primary schools and Project B plans to fund interventions to address the digital divide, particularly access to digital devices and relevant ICT infrastructure.
The INTO notes that the objective of the Department’s proposal is to ensure that all learners are equipped with appropriate skills for the digital age. The vision of the Draft Primary Curriculum Framework seeks to embed digital technology across all curricular areas, striving to ensure that pupils develop the key competency of ‘being a digital learner’. To achieve that vision every primary school pupil must have access to a rich digital learning environment, including modern technology both at school and at home.
The INTO recognises the acceptance by Minister Foley that during the pandemic:
For some students, a lack of infrastructure impeded their ability to engage with remote learning and this digital divide will also impact their capacity to engage fully with digital technology and development of digital skills.
We welcome the second aspect of the government’s proposal, which seeks to provide enhanced digital infrastructure for schools and to address learners at risk of educational disadvantage through the digital divide by providing funding to schools.
However, the INTO is deeply concerned that the proposal from the Department to the EU is limited to providing high speed broadband to only one third of primary and special schools.
Government previously promised that Under Project Ireland 2040, the use of digital technologies in teaching, learning and assessment through the Digital Strategy for Schools will be supported. This union believes that if government fails to prioritise the installation of high-speed broadband in every primary and special school – in tandem with investment in digital technology – another generation of Irish children will be denied the opportunity to develop essential digital literacy skills. Ireland simply cannot afford to make that mistake again.
With limited resources, often at their own expense, school leaders and teachers in primary and special schools have demonstrated commitment and creativity in incorporating digital technologies into their planning to support teaching. They recognise its potential to enhance quality of learning and its importance in promoting essential skills for our young people in the 21st century. The emergency closure of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic saw teachers embrace technology to allow learning to continue remotely in the most challenging circumstances. In many cases, our members were forced to upskill rapidly and source distance-learning courses in ICT.
Whilst teachers have exhibited admirable determination and flexibility in adapting to these developments, their experiences were not uniform. Despite long-awaited investment in technology for schools as part of the existing Digital Strategy (2015-2020), many schools still do not have access to appropriate resources, digital devices or adequate broadband connectivity. Consequently, they are not in a position to create the digital learning environment required to meet the needs of a modern primary school curriculum and to cultivate digital literacy among pupils.
The INTO commends the ongoing work of teachers in the area of digital learning and acknowledges the potential of ICT. We note that government will enter discussions with teacher unions on a proposal that our members will support the use of technology to the greatest extent possible to maintain teaching and supports to children during unexpected closures.
In advance of these discussions, we strongly urge the Department of Education to reflect upon and learn from the challenges experienced by primary school teachers and principals as outlined in our submission on a revised digital strategy and to implement our recommendations to support the development and progression of digital technology in primary and special schools.
This union’s recent submission to the Department of Education serves to underscore the discrepancies that persist in Irish primary and special schools. It emphasises the need to address these inadequacies in order for the ambitions of a revised digital strategy to be realised.
The concerns raised by the INTO include:
- The unavailability of resources
- Poor connectivity
- ICT maintenance and centralised technical support for schools
- Large class sizes
- Failure to provide continuous professional development
- Cyber-safety
- The lack of posts of responsibility
The INTO recommends that a revised digital strategy addresses the following:
- The need for increased investment in ICT at primary school level to ensure all schools are equipped with the necessary infrastructure to allow pupils access to all required devices;
- The provision of high-speed broadband to all primary schools, with a reliable network that extends to all areas of the school;
- The development of digital content both in English and as Gaeilge by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) to support the redeveloped primary curriculum and meet the diverse needs of pupils in Irish primary schools;
- The adequate resourcing of the Professional Development Support Service for Teachers (PDST) to provide a range of upskilling opportunities for teachers in ICT including sustained support, enabling them to engage with digital technology and to provide digital learning opportunities for their pupils;
- The provision of assistive technologies and ICT resources (with the relevant continuous professional development) by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) to facilitate the inclusion of children with special educational needs;
- The re-establishment of middle-management posts in primary schools to enable a coordinated approach to the integrated development of technology usage across the curriculum in all classrooms;
- The development of an integrated approach to procurement and technical support for all primary schools.
INTO President Joe McKeown stated:
It is imperative that high speed broadband is installed as soon as possible in every primary and special school to ensure that Irish children and teachers can access 21st century teaching and learning resources. If the government secures funding from the EU to support one third of schools, they must augment that funding so that all schools have high-speed broadband installed quickly. For far too long, we’ve witnessed a piecemeal approach to the development of digital literacy. The pandemic has taught us that without the dedication and improvisation of teachers the neglectful approach of successive governments would have denied our pupils vital learning experiences. The present government must invest heavily in ICT to ensure our primary and special schools are never left in such a precarious position again. | https://www.into.ie/2021/06/04/ict-investment/ |
Almost 20 years ago David Berliner and Bruce Biddle published The Manufactured Crisis - Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America's Public Schools. In this they cited the ‘sweeping claims attacking the conduct and achievement of America’s public schools - claims that were contradicted by evidence we knew about’ (Berliner & Biddle, 1995: xi). These views emanated from the Reagan administration and the publication of A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform (The National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983), but many would trace its roots back to the 1930s, under the guise of neo-liberalism.
If anything, the attacks on America's public schools have intensified and have been mirrored on the other side of the Atlantic. In Australia there is a tendency to be influenced by and copy the US and UK in many fields and education is no exception. Despite attempts to provide counter-argument, what appears to be a widespread movement to denigrate and dismantle public education is gaining momentum.
Recently Berliner, Glass and Associates produced a successor to the Berliner and Biddle publication entitled 50 Myths and Lies that Threaten America's Public Schools – The Real Crisis in Education (2014). In the interim between the two works the influence of student testing has grown significantly and a plethora of vested interests has moved into the education space for ideological, political and financial reasons. Over three decades later the myths identified by Berliner, Biddle and subsequent writers have assumed the status of ‘facts’ in the eyes of many (Sahlberg, 2014), with additional myths/’facts’ added to the mix in a continuous, cumulative fashion, thereby adding to the strength and acceptance of the movement which, as will be seen, is thus self-fulfilling.
With these developments, educational research and other evidence has been distorted, discounted or disregarded in favour of deregulation, privatisation, corporatisation and quick fix solutions to the supposed problems of teaching and the ‘crisis’ in schooling. Educators have been either silent or silenced in debates and discussions about education (Dinham, 2013a).
What are the supposed problems with education and the proposed solutions?
The myths, ‘facts’ or beliefs underpinning the ‘crisis’ in education in the US, the UK, Australia and elsewhere are many but are typified in the following (after AACTE, 2012; Benn, 2012; Berliner et al., 2014; Brill, 2011; Christodoulou, 2014; Dinham, 2013a; Hopkins, 2013; Ravitch, 2010, 2013; Lubienski & Lubienski, 2013):
- Public education is failing
- International testing is a true barometer of the decline in public schooling
- Private schools are better than public schools
- Government funded independent and for-profit schools are better than private schools
- Greater autonomy for public schools will lift performance [yet]
- Greater accountability will lift public school performance
- Money is not the answer - increased spending on public education has not resulted in improvement in student achievement
- The teacher is the biggest influence on and is therefore responsible for student achievement
- Merit pay/payment by results is the solution to improving teacher quality
- Removing tenure and dismissing poor teachers will lead to greater student achievement
- Schools should be resourced on the basis of results
- The curriculum is a captive of the ‘left’
- Schools are not producing the skills and capabilities required by industry
- 21st century skills are not being taught in 21st century schools
- Technology changes everything
- Teacher education is ineffective and the value of a teaching credential is questionable
- The effects of poverty are too difficult to overcome
- Educational research offers no solutions
- Non-educators should lead (public) schools
- Choice, competition, privatisation and the free market are the answers to almost any question about education.
Each of the above has been found to be either unconfirmed or disproved by research evidence (see references above) but that has not stopped people, vested interests and organisations from advocating for them. In fact, quite the opposite seems to have occurred, with responses to such measures contributing to further falls in public confidence, leading to pressure for more extreme change.
Together these myths and beliefs have found expression in a number of powerful, related phenomena in Australian education centred upon mechanisms for alternative school establishment and funding, teacher quality, school governance and leadership, and school accountability.
What are some of the big ideas and developments in Australian education?
1. Government funded independent and for-profit schools
In 2014 the Australian Federal Minister for Education Christopher Pyne announced a $70 million ‘Independent Public Schools Initiative’ which plans to see more than 1,500 additional public schools become autonomous over the coming three years. The Australian Government Department of Education website states (2014: np):
The evidence shows, and overseas experience highlights, that increasing school autonomy can help lift student outcomes and better meet the needs of local communities.
In announcing the scheme Minister Pyne cited the experience in Western Australia (WA) whereby around a third of all public schools are designated ‘Independent Public Schools’ (IPS) under a plan launched in 2010. Pyne lauded the achievement of the WA IPS initiative in lifting student achievement but this assertion was not supported by an evaluation of the scheme commissioned by the WA Department of Education (Centre for Program Evaluation (CEP), 2013):
In this early phase of the IPS development there is little evidence of changes to student outcomes such as enrolment or student achievement (CEP, 2013: 8).
However the evaluation (CEP, 2013: 6) did find evidence that:
Expectedly, there are challenges and some dissenting voices particularly around issues such as:
increased workload, mainly in the transition to becoming IPS; and
the creation of a set of schools that have advantages over other schools.
The issue of greater autonomy for public schools will be examined later, but the move to independent government funded schools in this country is part of a larger movement involving ‘charter schools’ in the USA and ‘free schools’, ‘academies’ and ‘chains’ in the UK. This movement includes the notion of for-profit schools, many of which also receive government funding and various financial concessions and support.
At present non-government primary and secondary schools in Australia are eligible to receive public funding, providing they maintain their non-profit status. However this may well change with the entry of global for-profit school corporations such as Fairview Global (based in Malaysia) and Gems Education (based in Dubai), both of which are on record as stating they are planning to enter the mainstream Australian education market (Han, 2013). Whilst there are currently legislative restrictions on the operation of for-profit schools in Australia there is clearly pressure to go in that direction, particularly since such schools are operating in the US and UK.
What then is the research evidence for these types of schools, given they claim to lift student achievement? Dianne Ravitch has provided an overview of charter schools in the US and has concluded (2014: 178):
The charter movement began with high hopes in the early 1990s. Charter schools were supposed to enrol the neediest students. But in the era of NCLB, it was dangerous to enrol the students who had a hard time sitting still, those with disabilities, and those who couldn't speak or read English. They might pull down the school’s test scores. Few charters want the students for whom charters were first invented.
Charters were supposed to be laboratories for bold innovations, but the most successful charters follow a formula of no “excuses”: strict discipline, eyes on the teacher, walk in a straight line, no deviation from rigid rules and routines. Some of the most successful charters seem determined to reinvent the schoolhouse of a century ago.
Ravitch goes further (2014: 178):
The charter movement has become a vehicle for privatisation of large swaths of public education, ending democratic control of the public schools and transferring them to private management. The charters seek to compete, not to collaborate, with public schools. …
The developments of the past two decades have brought about massive changes in the governance of public education, especially in urban districts. Some children have gained; most have not. And the public schools, an essential element in our democracy for many generations, have suffered damage that may be irreparable.
Berliner, et al., (2014: 22-23) note:
The growth and expansion of charter schools over the past two decades have given them a mythical status in the education arena, without much data to support the hype. The rhetoric of success fuels the myth, but reality is much more sobering. Myth spreaders conflate parental agency and school choice, concealing research that that traditional public schools typically outperform charter schools; play down the impact of charter school failures; and promote the diversion of resources from traditional public schools that educate most of the kids in this country. …
[Stanford University found in 2009] more than 80% of charter schools are either no better or worse than traditional public schools at securing math and reading gains for their students.
A ‘free’ school is a not-for-profit, government funded independent school. These were established in England under the 2010 Academies Act with a similar remit to charter schools in the US (and elsewhere) and free schools in Sweden (for-profit, operating since 1991). Existing state schools can also become academies (introduced in 2002) with similar freedoms under the Act. Free schools have been set up under the control of parents, teachers, businesses and charities.
Under the 2010 Academies Act free schools can set their own pay and conditions for staff, have greater control over their budget, have freedom from following the National Curriculum, can change the length of terms and schools days and are free from local authority control. They have also been able to circumvent planning regulations applying to regular schools and thus have been established in old factories, hospitals and office buildings.
As with charter schools, the perceived advantages include greater autonomy and scope for innovation with resultant higher student attainment. Again, as with charter schools, there have been concerns expressed over the application process to establish a school, cost, effectiveness in terms of student achievement, the effects on and diversion of funds from state schools, lack of local accountability, implications for teachers (including de-unionisation and non-recognition of industrial awards and conditions), and discriminatory admission practices around ‘social selection’, whereby government funded independent schools exclude lower SES students and make selection decisions on the basis of what parents can offer the school, something that works against ethnic and social diversity and results in a form of segregation. The latter makes it more difficult to compare the achievements of such schools with ‘regular’ state schools that usually can’t screen or select students (see Hatcher, 2011: 486).
It is probably premature to draw conclusions regarding student attainment in free schools in England – although two of 174 free schools have been closed because of failure to reach acceptable standards - but Bohlmark and Lindahl found in respect of the more than 1,000 free schools in Sweden (2008: 1):
… we do not find any impact on medium or long-term educational outcomes such as high school GPA, university attainment or years of schooling. We conclude that the first-order short-term effect is too small to yield lasting positive effects.
In considering the likely effects of free schools on student attainment, Hatcher comments (2011: 500):
The evidence from the models on which government policy draws – Labour’s academies, US charter schools and Swedish free schools – is conflicting, but in my view the balance of evidence points to their being in general no more successful in terms of performance than comparable mainstream schools.
However the lack of supporting evidence for independent government funded schools, including for-profit schools and chains of schools, has not dampened enthusiasm for the concept in the US, England or Australia. Concerns raised by numerous evaluations and reviews have been swept aside or ignored. We can expect to see more of this initiative in Australia.
2. Greater school autonomy
The theory that greater school autonomy will lead to greater flexibility, innovation and therefore student attainment is intuitively appealing and pervasive. School autonomy has become something of an article of faith. However, establishing correlation and causation is not so easy.
The Department for Education in the UK states (2013: np):
There is evidence that giving heads and teachers greater freedom over their curriculum, budget and staff can help improve the quality of the education they provide and reduce the attainment gap. We also believe giving parents, teachers and charities the ability to open schools in response to the needs of the local community will help to raise standards.
The ‘evidence’, however, is not referenced. Similarly the Australian Government Department of Education has stated (2014: np):
Both internationally and in Australia, evidence emphasises the advantages of school autonomy as part of a comprehensive strategy for school improvement.
In Australia, schools in all states and territories have been moving towards more autonomous and independent models to improve education outcomes.
The Australian Government also recognises that giving schools and school leaders greater autonomy can help improve student results.
Great schools have leaders and teachers who have the independence to make the decisions and develop the courses that best meets the needs of their students.
David Hopkins reviewed the evidence for school autonomy and found (2013: 29):
The myth of autonomy is currently centrestage given the increasing prevalence of ‘right of centre’ governments to embrace the trend towards devolution of school management. The rhetoric is that if we let schools be free – release them from bureaucratic control and encourage independence, self-governance and making one's own decisions – then they will flourish. This is an attractive and populist image.
However we know from the evidence of PISA … that there is no correlation between decentralisation and achievement.
Thus, if correlation between school autonomy and student achievement can’t be established, causation would seem to be out of the question. Hopkins (2013: 30) cites the findings of the McKinsey report Capturing the Leadership Premium (Barber et al., 2010):
… differences in what leaders do are not directly related to the level of autonomy they are given. Internationally, there is no relationship between the degree of autonomy enjoyed by a school principal and their relative focus on administrative or instructional leadership.
A key aspect is ‘autonomy over what’. Public schools that have greater autonomy – which usually means greater responsibility for certain functions – often have more accountability in other areas, accompanied by less funding and systemic support. Karl Weick (1976) described schools as loosely coupled organisations, yet with certain aspects being tightly coupled. While some aspects of school operation may have become ‘looser’ under the guise of autonomy (use of resources, hiring and utilisation of staff, raising funds), others have become more tightly coupled or controlled (accountability for student achievement, curricula, teacher standards, teacher appraisal, external testing, school reporting).
Another aspect lies with school leaders’ preparedness and willingness to adopt more responsibility and greater autonomy. Some school leaders and their communities may well be enthusiastic about greater autonomy, others ambivalent and some should probably have less and not more autonomy. In other words, there is likely to be a spectrum of capability and motivation for greater school autonomy. Ironically, some schools will need greater support to become more autonomous (Dinham, 2007; 2008).
What is needed above all however, is clear research evidence that the initiative works, and under what conditions, rather than blind enthusiasm for the concept. This is explored below under the area of deregulation.
3. Deregulating education – the free market is the answer
A powerful idea running through the discussion to this point is the notion that education needs to be deregulated, privatised and exposed to market forces in order to flourish. It is a deep-seated belief that such measures are essential to improve teacher, school and student performance but more than this there is an ideological aspect to the argument grounded in neo-liberalism.
What is perhaps ignored or overlooked in the Australian context is the fact that Australia already has one of the most privatised education systems in the world with a much higher level of attendance at non-government schools than in comparable nations. The so-called drift to non-government schools has been facilitated by governments over the past few decades.
Another big idea driving deregulation is that of ‘user pays’. In this sense education is increasingly being seen more as a commodity to be purchased and a cost to taxpayers and governments, rather than as an investment in the personal, social and economic prosperity of the nation.
Moreover, public schools can’t operate as businesses when they have to ‘take everyone’ and operate in all geographic and SES areas. Ravitch expands upon this (2014: 301-2):
Public schools must accept all children. They cannot pick and choose among them. They cannot reject those who are homeless and those who don't speak English. They cannot “counsel out” those with low test scores or those with profound disabilities. They must find a place for students with behavioural problems. They are responsible for educating them all. Obviously, schools with selective admissions policies and schools with lotteries [for places], whether they are public or private or charter, will have higher test scores and fewer discipline problems. It is easy to get high test scores when the students are ready, willing, and able to learn.
When corporate executives look at the public schools, they cannot understand why they move slowly; they want them to produce rapid and dramatic changes. They demand results, not explanations. They want scores to rise overnight. They believe in transformative change and disruptive innovation.
If schools were to operate as businesses they would be expected and required to adopt the twin commercial strategies of cutting costs and/or increasing revenue. This might be possible in manufacturing products for sale but is less appropriate for schools. The highest costs in schools are associated with labour. To reduce these will require fewer staff and/or lower salaries. Larger class sizes and fewer, lesser qualified teachers are obvious means of achieving this. To increase revenue would require attracting more students and/or higher tuition fees.
The example of cyber-charter or virtual schools in the USA is the most extreme manifestation of this approach:
A cyber-charter or virtual school does not have school buildings. It delivers instruction to students at home via computers. The parents of the children are their “learning coaches”. These schools may draw students from across an entire state or even across state lines (Ravitch, 2014: 167).
In 2012 there were almost 200,000 K-12 students enrolled full-time in 311 virtual or cyber schools in the USA, most of which are classed as charter schools. Two thirds of these students were enrolled in for-profit virtual schools (National Education Policy Center (NEPC), 2013: 4-5). Overall, the student achievement results for such schools are dismal, according to the NEPC (2013: 10):
Comparisons across these measures [Adequate Yearly Progress benchmarks - AYP] suggested virtual schools are not performing as well as brick-and-mortar schools. …
In the 2010-2011 school year, there was a 28 percentage point difference between full-time virtual schools meeting AYP and traditional brick-and-mortar district and charter schools that did: 23.6% compared with 52%, respectively.
Using state school performance ratings, in 2011-12, only 28.1% of full-time virtual schools were deemed ‘academically acceptable’ whilst 71.9% were found to be ‘academically unacceptable’ (NEPC, 2013: 11).
Using graduation rates as a metric, in 2011-12, 79.4% of all US schools achieved expected on time graduation benchmarks compared with only 37.6% for virtual schools (NEPC, 2013: 12).
The NEPC report concluded (2013: 12):
Although technology offers exciting possibilities, the consistently negative performance of full-time virtual schools makes it imperative to know more about these schools. The advocates of full-time virtual schools are several years ahead of policymakers and researchers, and new opportunities are being defined and developed largely by for-profit entities accountable to stockholders rather than to any public constituency. Given this picture, continued rapid expansion seems unwise.
Ravitch comments (2014: 304):
Our goal is a society, which we have never achieved, is to provide an education of equal quality to every child so that each of them has an equal chance to succeed in the world.
The business model of choice and competition, testing and accountability, moves us even further away from that goal; as communities dissolve, students and families sort themselves into schools to reflect differences in race, ethnicity, and class. As communities and schools become more segregated they become more, not less inequitable.
Growing inequity in society generally and in schooling is of great significance, a matter returned to later in this paper.
4. Moving teacher education to schools, new entrants to teacher education
The movement of teacher education from universities to schools, with commensurate use of ‘alternative’ providers, goes back to the mid-1980s in the US and the early 1990s in the UK. It is a trend that is beginning to gather pace in Australia.
These routes are “alternative” to traditional preparation in the sense that they generally have the teacher candidate serve in an “internship” as the teacher of record [i.e., they may be the only teacher in a room of students] … just as certified teachers in neighbouring classrooms are on their own …
At the inception of alternative certification [in the US], there was clear consensus about how it should differ from traditional preparation: alternative certification would be a responsible way to get smart, content-proficient individuals — especially individuals with content knowledge in areas such as secondary math, science, and foreign languages — into the classroom with necessary training and coaching, but without requiring that they earn another degree or its equivalent (Greenberg, Walsh & McKee, 2014: 59).
Candidates in such programs typically earn a partial salary while gaining formal certification as a teacher. Alternative certification includes the now global ‘Teach for All’ program, which has a presence in Australia through ‘Teach for Australia’. Teach For Australia has received significant political and financial support, although it is not present in all states and territories and numbers of ‘associates’ and graduates represent only a tiny proportion of the total teaching service.
One in five teachers in the US is now being trained in ‘alternative certification programs’ (including programs provided by for-profit companies in Texas, the only state to permit this). A review of teacher preparation in the US for the National Council on Teacher Quality (Greenberg, et al., 2014: 2) found:
These independent [non-college] programs have very low admission standards, do not ensure that candidates are prepared to teach every subject to which they could be assigned, and provide insufficient support to candidates as they take on full-time teaching responsibilities.
Gilroy has provided an overview of this development in the UK. In January 1992 Kenneth Clarke, Secretary of State for Education in England and Wales, made an announcement that ‘the vast majority of initial teacher education would, within nine months, begin to be located in schools and away from colleges, polytechnics and universities … The initial plan, made with no attempt to consult teacher educators, produced consternation and anger in the training institutions’ (1992: 5).
A series of reports in the mid-late 19th century had highlighted the need for enhanced teacher training and from 1888 universities began training teachers through newly established education departments. Courses gradually increased over time and by the 1960s training was extended from two to three years and then to four through BEd degrees. Gilroy notes (1992: 8):
Within 150 years initial teacher education had gradually developed from a rejection of a school-based pupil-teacher apprenticeship scheme to one whereby students were inducted into the profession of teaching through a structured combination of training and education in both school classrooms and institutions of higher education.
This was now to be reversed. Space precludes a detailed examination of developments from that time, but entry to teaching in England today is now mainly through the following routes (National College for Teaching and Leadership and Department of Education, 2014):
- University-led training
- School Direct Training Programme
- School Direct (salaried)
- School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) [where the school is usually the accredited provider]
- Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) [for experienced teachers].
Increasingly, initial teacher education in England is moving to schools as ‘Schools are taking more control of teacher training’ (NCTL, DoE, 2014, np). The associated funding is thus being diverted away from universities. This puts pressure on faculties of education in that typically, income from coursework enrolments in education funds staffing, subsidises research and supports general faculty infrastructure. Some faculties of education are closing or realigning their focus more towards educational policy rather than teacher training. This makes education research problematic. It may also worsen the so-called ‘theory-practice’ divide and make it more difficult to break the cycle of teachers teaching as they were taught. In response, some universities are also moving towards operating their own schools so that they can gain SCITT status.
This movement of teacher education away from universities and colleges is, like other phenomena outlined in this paper, being driven by some widely accepted yet contested beliefs.
The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE, 2012: np) has summarised and attempted to refute a range of myths concerning teacher preparation:
- Educator preparation in higher education is out of touch and hasn't changed in 50 years.
- Educator preparation programs in higher education are locked in the ivory tower with little to no understanding of the needs of P-12 students.
- Teachers have little to no knowledge about the content they are teaching.
- Alternative providers prepare most minority teachers.
- Teachers do not require preparation. Credentials and experience don't matter. Only content knowledge matters.
- There are few entry or exit requirements for teacher candidates. Anyone can get in, and everyone gets out.
- Teacher preparation programs in higher education operate with no accountability and actively oppose accountability efforts.
- Higher education offers only one route to becoming a teacher. Alternative routes are found outside of higher education.
- Value added scores of teacher preparation programs’ graduates are the most appropriate and meaningful measure of preparation program effectiveness.
- Graduates of teacher preparation programs do not know how to effectively use technology or assessment data with P-12 students.
One of the difficulties in making judgements about teacher education courses is that these vary considerably in terms of the calibre of those accepted and in demonstrated program effectiveness (see Greenberg, et al., 2014). There are valid concerns about teacher education but there are also programs that seek to address and overcome these (see Darling-Hammond & Baratz-Snowden, 2005; Alter & Coggshall, 2009; McLean-Davies, et al., 2013).
In teacher preparation, as with other aspects of teaching and education more generally, research has demonstrated what is effective and what is not. The key challenge, however, lies in up-scaling (see Elmore, 1996) in order to make best practice common practice.
In Australia in 1992 - responding in part to developments in the UK – a Commonwealth policy document titled Teacher Education: A discussion paper was released. It painted a dismal picture of teacher educators and teacher education and stated that consideration should be given to ‘transferring a lot of teacher education to schools’ (Chadbourne, 1993: 1). In the interim there has been almost constant criticism of teacher education:
Concerns about teacher competence have abounded for decades. In Australia, there has been, on average, one major state or national inquiry into teacher education every year for the past 30 years … No other program of professional preparation has been thought to warrant such scrutiny (Dinham, 2013a: 91-92).
Each inquiry has come to much the same conclusions and made much the same recommendations, yet little has changed. At the time of writing, yet another review is taking place (Dinham, 2014c).
However what is different now is that concrete moves are being made to site teacher education more in schools. The Victoria Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) has for example called for tenders to establish new ‘Teaching Academies for Professional Practice … open for all schools and educational providers to establish five new pre-service teacher education site based centres in regional and metropolitan Victoria’ (DEECD, 2014: np).
A key question in the movement of education to schools is the relative mix between university and school involvement. Balance is important. However this is not only about time – the quality and effectiveness of the teacher education experience is paramount and there needs to be congruence between how candidates are being prepared in universities and their in-school professional experiences (Mclean Davies, et al, 2013). It remains to be seen the extent to which teacher education moves to schools, the forms that this will take and the impacts it will have, but momentum is growing.
As well as this development in Victoria, in the same state and elsewhere there have also been new entrants to teacher education, including public and private technical colleges and schools, working in some cases with interstate universities.
This is part of a trend towards greater deregulation in higher education generally (James, 2014).
5. A growing presence for the publishers and big business
A further international development impacting on Australia is the entry of ‘big business’ into education. There has always been a commercial aspect to education with providers of textbooks, resources and equipment but this is escalating almost exponentially. Publishers are now moving into large scale vertical integration whereby they have commercial involvement with curricula, teaching resources, teaching standards, teacher training, development and appraisal, and student assessment and testing; in effect gaining control of the entire education supply chain. Technology and ICT corporations are also increasingly active, both in tandem with the large publishers and as stand-alone bodies. This is not illegal and these firms are responding to opportunity, but the outcomes will be interesting and the impacts quite possibly profound. The publishers wield enormous influence with government, educational systems, large scale testing programs such as PISA and across the educational market place generally.
Carmody (2012, np) has noted that the growing presence in education of the publishers under the following broad trends:
- The biggest publishers in the world today are education publishers
- Education publishers own lots of “little” publishers, too
- Education publishers don’t just sell books; they deal in information
- Every education publisher has invested deeply in the broader education industry — especially its digital future.
The largest publisher of all is Pearson. Pearson’s business strategy is clear (Pearson, nd, np):
- Long-term organic investment in content
- Digital products and services businesses
- International expansion
- Efficiency
Carmody noted (2012, np):
Almost all big education publishers are involved in some way with educational testing and learning management platforms. Pearson partners with The College Board to administer the SAT and scores the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The company makes $1.7 billion each year in worldwide educational testing alone.
Every education publisher knows that its biggest growth opportunities are digital products and services, expansion into global markets, and efficient investment in its content-based enterprises (like books and journalism).
Each of them are working on end-to-end solutions: not just textbooks and testing, but software-based learning delivery platforms, much like what Apple unveiled … with iTunes U. They invest in highly interactive platform-specific apps like Inkling, and basic, cross-platform e-textbook standards like CourseSmart. And they invest in Apple.
Their giant size and reach throughout the education and media landscape gives these publishers advantages and disadvantages. One disadvantage: they move slowly. One big advantage: you cannot outflank them.
The growing presence of for-profit publishers in education has been viewed with concern, particularly when these are working with large and influential ‘corporate reformers’ such as the Gates Foundation on key initiatives such as the ‘Common Core State Standards’ in the US, for which Pearson is developing online curricula for teaching the standards (Ravitch, 2014:23).
One of the largest chains of the cyber-charter schools mentioned previously is Connections Academy. Connections are now owned by Pearson (Ravitch, 2014: 167).
Pearson and other leading educational publishers such as Reed Elsevier, Thomson Reuters, Kluwer and McGraw-Hill are already highly active and increasingly influential in the Australian education market, and this activity is growing.
Another aspect is universities working with corporate entities through online learning partnerships. An example is Swinburne University which is offering online teacher education (and other) courses in partnership with SEEK Learning. Some faculties of education in Australia are now sponsored by international publishers.
Conclusion
The broad and powerful global developments outlined above that form part of what Sahlberg (2014) has labelled the ‘Global Education Reform Movement’ (GERM), are finding increased support and traction in Australia.
Because of Australia’s close links with England and the USA and their historic influence, it is not surprising that the myths and beliefs underpinning these developments have been accepted almost without evidence or questioning in Australia.
Central to these developments is the profound belief/’fact’ that public education in its traditional forms has failed and is in crisis. However these developments are not merely a reaction to this ‘manufactured crisis’ (Berliner & Biddle, 1995), but are actively contributing to the further erosion of confidence in and the dismantling of public education in all three nations and beyond:
Public education is in a crisis only so far as society is and only so far as this new narrative of crisis has destabilised it. The solutions proposed by the self-proclaimed reformers have not worked as promised. They have failed even by their own most highly valued measure, which is test scores. At the same time, the reformers’ solutions have had a destructive impact on education as a whole (Ravitch, 2014: 4).
The rhetoric of crisis needs to be challenged as must the glib exhortations to privatise, corporatise and deregulate education. As Ravitch has pointed out, we need to stop doing ‘the wrong things’, including the orchestrated almost hysterical attacks upon public education (Ravitch, 2014: 8-9). We need to strengthen public schools and public education for the betterment of all and we need strong affirmation in support of public education. Education should not be about user pays or survival of the most advantaged.
The global measures being implemented in Australia are not addressing the real causes of the achievement gap. Most public schools are performing well (Lubienski & Lubienski, 2013) yet the drift to non-government schools and more recently to government funded independent schools is being actively encouraged. On the other hand there are many non-government schools that are not adding value at the level predicted by earlier student achievement, as NAPLAN data clearly demonstrates. One thing that is not being recognised is that these changes are potentially equally disruptive to ‘traditional’, not-for-profit, non-government schools and systems. It is not just a matter of trying to defend public education (Dinham, 2014d).
Australia is becoming a more unequal society and recent developments are exacerbating that inequality. Disadvantage is being entrenched and not overcome and there will be a price to pay in terms of personal, social and economic prosperity. As Wilkinson and Pickett have demonstrated (2009), inequality in society is actually worse for everyone.
It is not a matter of giving more or less funding to any one sector but of ensuring that the funds are expended on factors or variables that are known have the greatest impact on learning (see the ‘Gonski’ review, Australian Government, 2011); factors such as teachers’ professional learning with appropriate recognition and reward (Dinham, Ingvarson & Kleinhenz, 2008), qualified staff both teaching and para-professional (Dinham & Scott, 2000), evidence-based practice, effective instructional leadership (Dinham, 2013b) and adequate school infrastructure.
If these developments continue, the inevitable outcomes will be greater inequity and continuing decline in educational performance, outcomes that will provide the proponents for such change with further ‘evidence’ to support their position and for even more far-reaching change.
A tsunami comprises waves with very long wave lengths. Often these go unnoticed until it is too late to do anything about them. When they reach land great devastation can result. The ‘long wave’ changes to education outlined above need to be subjected to intense scrutiny before it is too late. If the profession remains silent and passive in the face of some of these developments it will have itself to blame, at least in part, for what might eventuate (Dinham, 2014a).
It might appear naive but surely it is up to the proponents of major change to provide supporting evidence prior to its widespread introduction. It should not be left to others to disapprove or question these significant developments. In the medical sphere there are well-established protocols that need to be adhered to prior to the introduction of any new drug or treatment. No such protocols apply in education, an area in which lives are also at stake (Dinham, 2014b, 2014d).
References
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This paper was previously presented as: Dinham, S. (2014). ‘The Worst of Both Worlds: How the US and UK are Influencing Education in Australia’, 2014 Walter Neal Oration, Australian College of Educators, Western Australia Branch, Perth, 28th October.
It was also published as: Dinham, S. (2015). ‘The Worst of Both Worlds: How US and UK models are Influencing Education in Australia’, Educational Policy Analysis Archives, 23(49), http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v23.1865. | https://cpl.asn.au/journal/semester-1-2016/the-worst-of-both-worlds-how-the-us-and-uk-are-influencing-education-in |
A bad education report is an eye-opener for many students, but for the majority of the population, it’s a warning sign that the school system isn’t ready for the challenges ahead.
The government’s latest rankings of world’s best and worst education systems have left many questioning whether they’re doing enough to address the problems they’re facing.
While the US and Europe have been able to tackle the underlying issues, a lack of investment and funding has resulted in a sharp drop in the quality of teaching, learning and research in India.
The report, released in April, said that India has a long way to go to become a global leader in higher education.
The report noted that India is one of the least educated countries in the world, with a population of 1.3 billion, with more than half of students not getting a high school diploma or university degree.
In many states, schools and universities remain inaccessible to poor students and students living in rural areas.
It said that more than 30 per cent of all students in rural India don’t have access to a primary or secondary school, while nearly one in four children do not have access at all to a university.
The Education Department of the Centre for Science Education (CSE) has launched a project to improve India’s education system and said that the government would soon release the report and recommendations.
“We have a number of issues that we have identified and will address with a focus on ensuring the education system is up to date and ready for students to succeed in the global economy,” a spokesperson said.
But the rankings are a reminder that despite reforms to improve the education sector, India is still struggling to create the workforce needed for a fast-growing economy.
The average salary for a teacher in India was just Rs.2,500 last year, which is just Rs 4,000 more than in the US.
According to the OECD, the median salary for teaching is Rs.24,000, while the median income for a university student is just $9,000.
The US ranked fifth in the education rankings, and the OECD also ranked India seventh, which has an education system that is still behind many of its peers in terms of educational attainment.
The US, Germany and Australia also have higher average salary and average household income than India, according to the US Department of Education.
In the UK, the average salary is $72,800, which equals more than $70,000 for a family of four.
The Department of Human Resources and Training said the government’s priority is to improve education in India by providing more resources to teachers, teachers training and instituting a new curriculum.
“There is a need for more investment in teaching and training, and a new framework to develop a new teaching and learning model,” said Kailash Kumar, director, human resources and training department. | https://buanoi-nkp2.com/2021/09/13/how-to-beat-the-bad-education-review/ |
Over the past decade, there has been emerging political consensus regarding state school finance systems, money, and schools, supported by a growing body of high-quality empirical research regarding the importance of equitable and adequate financing for providing high quality schooling to all children.
There is, of course, serious and often contentious debate about how education funding should be spent, but virtually all potentially effective policies and approaches require investment, often substantial investment. The idea that “money doesn’t matter” is no longer defensible.
However, school finance systems, and their measurement, are highly complex, and often difficult to understand for policymakers, parents, and the general public. Acting on the empirical and political consensus about the importance of school funding therefore requires data and measures that are accessible and widely accepted as credible.
This need is the impetus for the School Finance Indicators Database, a collection of sophisticated school finance measures that can be used to assess the adequacy and fairness of each state’s revenue, spending, and resource allocation, and to compare these measures between states.
The database is designed for use not only by researchers, but also by parents, policymakers, journalists, and the general public.
Proper funding is a necessary condition for educational success: Competitive educational outcomes require adequate resources, and improving educational outcomes requires additional resources.
The cost of providing a given level of educational quality varies by context: Equal educational opportunity requires progressive distribution of resources, targeted at students and schools that need them most.
The adequacy and fairness of education funding are largely a result of legislative policy choices: Good school finance policy can improve student outcomes, whereas bad policy can hinder those outcomes.
The primary product of the system is the State Indicators Database, a collection of 130 state-by-state school finance measures, most of which are available for all years between 1993 and 2016. These measures are statistically adjusted by factors such as district size and labor market costs, so they are comparable within and between states. The database includes not only revenue and spending, but also a collection of variables measuring how states and districts spend their resources, including staffing ratios, class size, and teacher salaries. Users can also download the District Indicators Database, a more detailed district-by-district collection of variables, many of which are used to construct the state indicators.
In addition to an annual report presenting findings from key indicators from the state database, we will also be publishing regular research briefs examining other measures in the system. It is our hope and intention that our data, and analyses based on these data, will help to inform and improve debates about school finance policy in the U.S.
This project has been supported in the past by a grant from the W.T. Grant Foundation. Previous versions of the dataset were compiled and published by the Education Law Center, and can be accessed here.
April 2019: The full School Finance Indicators Database and annual report are now available to download.
The first edition of our annual report presenting findings from the School Finance Indicators Database for School Year 2015-2016. Released April 2019. Download the report. | http://schoolfinancedata.org/about-the-project/ |
Budget 2006 spells out a huge investment in more teachers and more resources for schools across the Kaikoura electorate, says Te Tai Tonga MP Mahara Okeroa.
"The Budget reinforces Labour's commitment to strengthening Kaikoura schools by further reducing pupil-teacher ratios, increasing funding for our schools and investing more in modernising school buildings," Mahara Okeroa said.
The Budget provides $361 million in new funding over the next four years, plus $20 million in the current financial year to boost teacher numbers and put more resources into schools.
"The 48 schools in the Kaikoura* area are already set to get around 6 extra teacher positions for the 2007 school year. Since 1999, operational funding for local schools has increased by about $4.13 million," said Mahara Okeroa.
The Labour-led government is prioritising an extra 455 teachers for primary and special schools - meaning a total 3040 extra teacher positions created across New Zealand since 1999.
Schools' operational funding also increases by $95.6m nationwide (a 3% increase), and capital funding for school property upgrades will increase by nearly $149m, to almost $528m in 2006/2007.
"Labour is committed to ensuring every school is a good school and all students have the opportunity to succeed, including in Kaikoura," Mahara Okeroa said.
Education Minister Steve Maharey said investment in education was vital to transforming New Zealand's economy and society.
"This Budget continues Labour's drive to ensure our school system remains among the best in the world by continuing to invest in our schools and invest in our teachers," he said. | http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0605/S00543.htm |
Oral Answers to Questions — Education and Science – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 16th February 1982.
asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he is satisfied with the standard of education in State schools in England.
asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement setting out the Government's policy for encouraging the achievement of higher standards in both primary and secondary education.
asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he is satisfied with the standard of educational attainments in secondary schools.
There is always room for improvement in both primary and secondary schools. Our educational policies are directed towards that end.
Has my right hon. Friend seen recent reports that many pupils cannot do simple sums, cannot read a train timetable, and do not even know the meaning of the word "inflation"? Does he therefore think that a return to the teaching of the three Rs in schools might be preferable to some of the more modern, progressive and trendy systems of education?
I am sure that my hon. Friend is right to be worried about the revelations in the Cockcroft committee's report. Most of its recommendations are addressed to teachers. I hope that those recommendations will be widely read. The Government will consider what falls to them in that connection and what they can do about it.
I was interested to hear my right hon. Friend's brief statement in reply to that question. Will he take time later, in the Official Report and elsewhere, to make a fuller statement in answer to my question, which has been linked with question 11, and emphasise two matters which are important for standards in education: first, the importance of teaching practice in the context of teacher training; and, secondly, greater emphasis in his policy on absolute rather than relative standards in public examinations?
I accept all that my hon. Friend said as ingredients in the progress that we all want to make towards more effective education. I also emphasise the importance of increased parental choice, which my predecessor introduced in legislation which comes into effect this autumn, the importance of in-service training, and, above all, the importance of the quality of head teachers and teachers.
Does my right hon. Friend agree that staff-student ratios are better now than they were under the Labour Government? Does he also agree that education standards might be put at risk if, in making the necessary reductions in teacher posts to keep pace with falling rolls, consideration were not given to the fact that children are taught in discrete class units and that, therefore, global comparability numbers are not necessarily the right ones?
I thoroughly agree. The pupil-teacher ratio is at a record level, yet there are diseconomies in the falling school rolls.
Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the savage reductions in the rate support grant, which affect local education authorities—including Conservative-controlled authorities, such as Essex—mean that cuts are being made in basic necessities? That will inevitably lead to a drop in standards. Does the right hon. Gentleman not realise that since the war the biggest threat to education standards has come from the measures pursued by the Government?
No, Sir. Education authorities have a difficult set of problems to solve, but in the interests of the country, of teachers and of pupils we must rectify the balance between public expenditure and the economy as a whole.
How can the Secretary of State lay claim to a belief that he will raise educational achievements when he is presiding over schools that have £100 million less in real terms to spend this year on essential books and teaching materials than in 1978–79? In response to the question asked by the hon. Member for Peterborough (Dr. Mawhinney), will the right hon. Gentleman tell us what action he will take to ensure that levels of provision are raised in order to raise levels of attainment? Does the right hon. Gentleman really believe that less means better?
I do not believe that less means better; nor do I believe that more necessarily means better. The Government have provided money so that local education authorities can spend an extra £20 million this year on books and equipment if the pay and price assumptions built into the money made available are validated.
If we are to improve standards, is it not vital that it should be made easier to remove poor teachers?
My hon. Friend has touched on an important factor that I am due to discuss before long with education authorities.
What do Her Majesty's inspectors of education consider has been the impact of cuts on standards? | https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1982-02-16a.134.0&s=speaker%3A18590 |
On November 8, the Benton Foundation urged the Federal Communications Commission to make high-capacity broadband more available and affordable for the nation’s schools and libraries. For years, the FCC’s E-rate program has helped to bring basic Internet access and technology to the classroom. But if students, teachers, parents and whole communities are to take advantage of digital learning technologies, technologies that hold the promise of substantially improving educational experiences and expanding opportunity, the challenge no longer is basic access – it is about capacity.
Technology provides students of all backgrounds and in all locations with a more equitable educational environment. Community anchor institutions like schools and libraries rely on broadband technology to efficiently connect all students to instructional resources, to expedite teacher training, to provide individualized student resources, to complete uniform assessments, and to build community resources that help connect adults to job training and social services. However these improvements rely on one common building block, high-capacity broadband networks. For schools and libraries to be prepared to address today’s and tomorrow’s educational challenges, they must have access to a robust and high-capacity broadband infrastructure that will last for decades to come.
A key decision before the FCC is what level to properly fund the E-rate program. Schools and libraries recognize the critical importance of broadband infrastructure and this is reflected in the growing demand for E-Rate funding. According to the State E-Rate Coordinators Alliance, the annual demand for E-Rate has grown by more than 150% while the actual annual growth of the fund is 6%. To support and effectively meet the growing technology needs of schools and libraries both today and for the future, the FCC, in Benton’s estimation, must expand funding for the E-Rate program. As we read through the many filings in the initial round of public comments, we saw that many stakeholders made it clear that E-Rate funds fail to meet current demand levels and, if funding is left at the current level, it will also fail to meet future growth. For example, Funds for Learning estimates that by fiscal year 2015, 84% of libraries and 69% of schools will be denied funding entirely. The National Association of Elementary School Principals notes concern that if the FCC does not expand and modernize the E-Rate program, the Commission will be unable to meet the demands of schools for high-capacity broadband technology, which educators need to prepare students for a 21st century global workforce.
An increase in E-Rate funding could also provide much needed support for the expansion of broadband to vulnerable populations in remote and rural areas. The Vermont Agency of Education emphasizes the importance of a “further increase in the amounts of E-Rate funding available for schools and libraries in rural areas. Costs are high in last mile connections and schools in rural areas often are in high poverty areas as well.
At stake in the FCC’s deliberations is the ability to participate in next-generation learning and assessment. A failure to adequately meet the growing capacity demands of education will disrupt student learning as well as teacher accountability reforms being implemented in the states.
To ensure our schools and libraries effectively address educational needs, the FCC must modernize and enhance the E-Rate program. The growing demand for E-Rate funding outstrips the program’s cap.
Later this week, I’ll be writing more on the benefits of connected schools and libraries and the importance of high-capcity broadband to education. My colleagues at the Benton Foundation are tracking the debate on modernizing the E-rate program to meet the educational needs of today and tomorrow. We hope you’ll join the discussion about getting America’s students ahead by connecting them to the tools they need to succeed in the 21st century.
Amina Fazlullah is the Director of Policy at the Benton Foundation, working to address the communication needs of vulnerable communities. Since 2010 Ms. Fazlullah has led the Benton Foundation's work on reforming the Federal Communications Commission's universal service programs with a specific focus on the Lifeline and E-rate programs. She works on the Benton Foundation's efforts to develop and support important consumer protection policies which help vulnerable communities access, adopt and utilize broadband and voice services. Ms. Fazlullah is also responsible for the Benton Foundation's efforts around spectrum policy and children's online privacy. | https://www.benton.org/node/79360 |
If you own a business or work with businesses, you most likely already know that growth is essential for a company’s long-term success. However, achieving growth can be difficult and often requires tough decisions about where to allocate resources. Today we will discuss the W Framework, a marketing technique you may have yet to hear about. The framework consists of four elements: Winners, Losers, Wannabees, and Wildcards. The scope of this article is to show you how to use the W framework to build a successful growth strategy for your business.
What is W Framework?
The W Framework is a growth strategy that helps businesses identify untapped markets and new growth opportunities. The W framework is based on the concept that companies need to think beyond their existing markets and customer base to find new sources of growth.
The W Framework provides a structure for identifying these untapped markets and understanding the needs of potential customers. The framework is divided into four quadrants: W1, W2, W3, and W4.
Each quadrant represents a different stage in the market development process. Businesses start in the W1 quadrant, representing the current market, and then move to the W2 quadrant, representing adjacent markets.
Finally, they reach the W3 and W4 quadrants, representing entirely new markets. By using the W Framework, businesses can more effectively identify growth opportunities and develop strategies for tapping into those markets.
W Framework 4-Step Process
Whether it’s a long-term strategy or just the following year’s Plan, planners often need help to let go of the Moses mentality, even if they know from experience that dictating from on high rarely produces the desired results. More people need to become involved than that.
W Framework integrates ideas from the executive level and the appropriate teams inside the firm to produce a more practical yet strategically sound strategy. Unlike other activities a company may undertake, planning presents unique challenges. Instead of focusing on day-to-day operations, a massive group of individuals must consider multiple futures, agree on a particular future, and then develop a specific plan to reach that goal.
What they discovered to be at the heart of nearly all unsuccessful planning efforts is addressed by the framework: A fundamental misunderstanding of responsibilities and deadlines. There often needs to be clarity inside organizations about who should have input, when, and what precisely each stakeholder is responsible for providing and to whom. Not having answers to these questions might cause confusion and disappointment while making plans.
In this model, the leadership group at the top of the firm or business unit is separated from those carrying out day-to-day operations, such as the marketing or smaller task teams responsible for monitoring individual products. The framework is named after the letter W because of how work will zigzag between supervisors and workers as it makes its way up and down the chain of command.
Context
Leadership offers Context. Top-down direction is essential for effective planning, and teams must clearly understand their goals and objectives for the duration of the Plan. At this point, leadership should be OK with making the Plan perfect.
In planning, leadership should refrain from trying to show off their expertise. It’s an opportunity to impart knowledge and solicit input from others. Successful leadership requires participation from everyone. Once the strategic Plan has taken shape, the leadership must assign team members to take responsibility for its implementation.
In any business, it’s important to be able to spot external factors that can affect your company. This is especially true when trying to enter a new market. The first step of the W Framework is to level the Context, which means understanding the macro and micro factors at play. This includes everything from the political and economic climate to the demographics of your target audience.
Once you have an idea of the Context, you can start to make informed decisions about how to position your company for success. By taking the time to level the Context, you can give your business a leg up on the competition, and you’ll be poised to succeed.
Plans
Teams then offer their proposed Plan. Now that we have established the Context, we can develop actionable strategies for the leadership team’s various objectives. But the experts quickly point out that anything the leadership has offered so far is up for discussion at this level. This is the opportunity for teams to point out any serious problems with the Plan or suggest an alternative strategy.
They warn that one common mistake at this point is for people to work in silos for too long without communicating with one another or the management. Having an off-target strategy, as a result, is possible. A second mistake is treating the leadership’s orders as though they were set in stone. The purpose of this phase is to allow different teams to present their perspectives based on their fieldwork.
The W Framework is a strategic planning tool that businesses of all sizes can use. The framework is designed to help organizations achieve their objectives by identifying and addressing the key challenges they face. The W Framework consists of the Working Model, the Win-Win Map, and the Waterline. The Working Model is a tool that helps organizations to identify and understand the critical drivers of their business.
The Win-Win Map is a tool that helps organizations to identify and prioritize their objectives. A Waterline is a tool that helps organizations identify and handle the risks associated with their business. By using the W Framework, businesses can develop a comprehensive strategy to help them achieve their goals and objectives.
The W Framework is a project planning methodology that defines a project’s “What, Why, When, Who, and How.” By clearly answering these questions at the outset, the project team can stay focused on the goals and deliverables throughout the project. The “What” defines the overall goal of the project and what will be delivered at the end.
The “Why” explains the need for the project and how it will benefit the organization. The “When” establishes timelines and milestones for completing the project. The “Who” identifies who will be responsible for each task. And finally, the “How” defines how the project will be executed. By answering these questions upfront, organizations can set themselves up for success with any project.
Integration
An integrated plan is shared by leadership. The leadership takes all the separate plans and puts them together. They set goals, allot resources, and coordinate the whole enterprise under one Plan. Being aggressive enough, attempting to do too much, and being evasive about the tough decisions that need to be taken are all common mistakes.
The W Framework is a model for growth that emphasizes the importance of integration. To succeed, businesses must focus on integrating their people, processes, and technologies. People must be aligned with the company’s goals, and processes must be designed to support those goals. Technologies must be used to drive efficiency and enable new capabilities.
When all these elements work together, businesses can achieve their full potential. The W Framework provides a roadmap for businesses to follow as they strive for growth. Businesses can create a solid foundation to support their continued success by focusing on integration.
Buy-in
Teams confirm their buy-in. If you were caught off guard by this development, know I was, too. According to the advisors, this step is frequently disregarded or ignored altogether. Given the time and energy spent on the second stage and the likelihood that certain elements will have been altered or scrapped, taking care is required when communicating the integrated plans to team leaders. The top brass should double-check that nothing critical has been overlooked.
The W Framework is a growth strategy businesses can use to achieve sustainable and scalable success. To buy into the W Framework, businesses must commit to four key areas: market analysis, customer acquisition, product development, and organizational design.
- Market analysis: Businesses must take the time to understand their target markets and identify growth opportunities.
- Customer acquisition: Businesses must create a plan for acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones.
- Product development: Businesses must develop innovative products and services that meet the needs of their target markets.
- Organizational design: Businesses must design their organizations to support growth and scale.
By buying into the W Framework, businesses can position themselves for long-term success.
The W Framework provides order to an otherwise chaotic procedure. It also helps to delineate the creative, right-brain stages of strategy development from the more logical, left-brain stages that follow. Strategic planning is hampered when right- and left-brain tasks are not treated as distinct entities. If your current planning method is cumbersome or inefficient, you may want to give this one a shot. Outlining roles and expectations fosters cooperation rather than contention.
Growth Marketing Strategy Tips
As the name implies, growth marketing is all about achieving growth for your business. And while there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to growth marketing, specific strategies and tactics can help you achieve your desired results. Here are a few growth marketing tips to get you started:
With a clear understanding of your KPIs, it will be easier to measure your progress and determine what’s working and what isn’t. take the time to outline the most important KPIs to your business and invest in tracking them.
Do Your Research
Before you launch any growth marketing campaigns, it’s essential to do your research and understand your target market. What are their needs and wants? What are their pain points? What motivates them? Once you understand these things well, you’ll be in a much better position to create campaigns that resonate with them.
Test, Test, Test
A vital part of any successful growth marketing strategy is testing. You should constantly test different ideas and campaigns to identify what’s working best for your business. This will require some trial and error, but it’s essential for finding the right growth strategy for your business.
Focus on Quality Over Quantity.
Quality is more important than quantity when it comes to growth marketing, and it’s better to have a smaller number of high-quality leads than a large number of low-quality leads. So, make sure you’re putting your efforts into generating targeted traffic that is more likely to convert into customers or clients.
Be Patient
Growth doesn’t happen overnight, so patience is essential when implementing a growth marketing strategy. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your business will likely reach its full potential over time. So, don’t get discouraged if you don’t see immediate results; keep working hard, and eventually, you will see the fruits of your labor pay off.
Conclusion
When it comes to growing your business, there are many different factors to consider. How can you reach more customers? How can you improve and differentiate your product or service? What are your highest costs? The W Framework is a tool that can help you to answer these questions and develop a successful growth strategy.
The W Framework starts with understanding your target market. Who are your potential prospects? What are their needs? What does your product or service solve for them? Once you understand your market, you can develop a plan for reaching them. This might involve things like advertising, PR, or developing new partnerships.
Once you have customers, you need to keep them happy. This means constantly looking for ways to improve your product or service and keeping an eye on your costs so that you can continue to offer competitive prices. By continually focusing on these two areas, you can continue to grow your business.
If you need help marketing your product or services, click here, and we’ll be in touch. | https://www.leansummits.com/how-to-use-the-w-framework-to-build-a-successful-growth-strategy/ |
Evonik Industries is an industrial corporation and one of the world’s leading specialty chemicals companies. It is headquartered in Germany and employs about 33,000 people. They are active in more than 100 countries worldwide. The aim was to support their strategic innovation unit Creavis with in-depth interviews for an innovative technology, which can be applied in long-term oxygen therapy.
WhatAVenture supported Evonik with in-depth interviews with patients for long-term oxygen therapy to identify their pains and needs. This qualitative method helps to incorporate potential clients and end users in an early phase and to screen the market in detail. The results are a deep understanding of the market and the functioning of the ecosystem. Further, potential partners for pilots and testing of the innovative technology of Evonik could be identified.
The early incorporation of potential customers and users significantly reduces the risk to develop a product which is not suitable for the target market or to develop expensive features that may be interesting, but not relevant to the user. Furthermore, this approach supports the building of a network for business development and to identify first cooperation partners for pilot projects and thus facilitate the market entry into the identified markets. Additionally, deep insights in customer needs are acquired and help not only to select the right markets but also to identify the most successful commercialization strategy.
WhatAVenture helped as to better understand a market which is new to us, and to learn how we can integrate customers into early-stage projects to better understand their problems and to learn from them. | https://www.whataventure.com/use-cases/evonik |
Harvard Business School professor and "The Innovator’s Dilemma" author Clayton Christensen once noted that of the approximately 30,000 new products launched into the market annually, there is a 95% failure rate. Every organization and industry deals with this challenge.
Christensen pointed to over-innovation as a major root cause of this failure rate, saying, “Technological progress almost always outstrips customers' ability to use it.”
Personal computers are a great example. Most personal computer's processing power far exceeds the needs of the average user, meaning a large part of the machine's capabilities go wasted. And this constant need to enhance and optimize products often drives the costs of the items beyond the reach of the typical target customer.
To dive further into this topic, we sat down with Mark Langsfeld, CEO of mTab. Langsfeld has overseen innovation across an array of industries including social listening, customer analytics, customer experience and applied artificial intelligence (AI) and has been tasked throughout his career with overcoming the innovator’s dilemma. He has served as co-founder and president of ListenLogic, vice president of analytics innovation for Anexinet, and head of product innovation for VoiceBase.
What follows are five data-driven steps organizations can take to to solidify their understanding of market shifts and customer evolution to develop innovations that align with the needs of the user.
1. Position Perspective
First and foremost, assemble a comprehensive view of the surrounding competitive market landscape and the position of your brand and solution within it. Although often overlooked, this is typically achieved through external intelligence sources and analysis, including benchmark reports, landscape reviews and industry overviews. However, customer perspectives can also provide valuable insight into your solution’s differentiation factors and competitive advantages, as well as its positioning and perception within the market. For this reason, surveying customers to understand their attitudes and behaviors related to established products is key.
Langsfeld's take: "Having a clear grasp on your competitor’s offerings and stance in the market helps to not only reveal your product’s strengths and weaknesses, but also the opportunities for innovation where market or functionality gaps exist. Having a strong understanding of your position sets the foundation for innovation and allows the organization to align resources to develop solutions that intersect with user needs."
Related Article: Customer Feedback: A Goldmine in Your Midst
2. Customer Clarity
A vital part of innovation efficiency is understanding how customers perceive your brand and product. The backbone of this is internal data. And while the average company today has upwards of 400 data sources (and counting), adopting the means to overlay these quantitative and qualitative datasets provides incredible views into the behaviors (e.g. web logs, app activity, channel engagements) and preferences (e.g. product reviews, customer surveys, brand rankings) of the customer. Beyond this, these multidimensional cross-views can reveal the evolutionary path of the product.
Langsfeld's take: “While instincts and ‘gut reaction’ are often the guiding point for decisions, it’s a foolish undertaking when it comes to the future of a product or a company. Going directly to the customer is vital to developing innovations that will grow the strength and success of the organization. This is deeply rooted in data-driven understanding by unifying dispersed datasets into a single-source view of the customer. Listening to the end-user to understand their raves and rants is critical in driving effective innovation.”
Related Article: Customer Data Platforms Shine Where CRMs Fail
3. Strategic Synthesis
Once you've assembled the views of the external market and internal customer, synthesize them to gain a holistic understanding of the opportunities where the market and customer intersect. The result will be a roadmap for innovating your solutions and evolving your products. The roadmap serves as the basis for developing the strategy around the technology development, target market, engagement channels, product positioning and communication planning. All of these elements are critical to enhancing your product and exposing it to the market.
Langsfeld's take: “Aligning the needs and preferences of the customer with gaps in the market offerings can reveal opportunities while validating the technological and personnel investments required. This serves as a proof-point on the direction of the organization’s innovation steps to ensure that the opportunity is there on both the strategic and tactical levels.”
Related Article: Innovation Can Be Taught. And Measured
4. Universal Understanding
Once this fragmented data is synthesized into innovation intelligence, it needs to be distributed across the organization — from sales and strategy to customer experience and the C-Suite. This provides the information needed to serve as the backbone for every team to make decisions, set strategy, plan engagements and design innovations. For example, engineering and product are focused on developing enhancements based on the market gaps and solution weaknesses, while marketing and sales are developing plans based on product strengths and top features. Working off the same data foundation ensures everyone is working off the same knowledge base, with the same assumptions and aligned goals.
Langsfeld's take: “While it’s important to align the needs and preferences of the customer with gaps in the market, educating your entire organization on this insight is equally critical. Too often, when companies demolish their data silos, they still fail to democratize this understanding across the organization, essentially locking up the intelligence from cross-functional teams.”
Related Article: Is Your Company Data-Driven or Data Informed?
5. Flywheel Focus
Developing and integrating a flywheel process will ensure innovation is an ongoing effort. This makes the process a fundamental component of the organization’s DNA and facilitates continuous SWAT reviews of strengths and weaknesses of the product and opportunities and threats to the organization. This approach transforms innovation into a fundamental component of the organization’s culture across each department.
Langsfeld's take: “Innovation is not a one-time event, nor should it be periodic. The most successful innovative organizations are the ones that embrace and encourage it as an everyday process. This is why establishing a methodology and supporting it with insight is the ideal way to successfully innovate. The foundation to drive this is to encourage a read-react-response to the market across every team.”
Related Article: Building Innovation Practices With Staying Power
The Bottom Line
Adopting a data-driven approach to facilitate deep understanding of your organization, customers and competitors is fundamental to overcoming ‘The Innovator’s Dilemma.’ Driving innovation to fill in the gaps across the market and align with the needs of the customer is achieved when insight drives innovation. Beyond this, making it a part of the everyday methodology and process of your organization will engrain it into the operation and result in innovation being a fundamental driver of success rather than a dilemma to avoid. | https://www.cmswire.com/digital-experience/overcome-the-innovators-dilemma-with-data-driven-insight/ |
There are many reasons why you should have a business plan ready. In the long run, you'll reach your company's goals, avoid making the same mistakes your competitors made, and launch new products on time. As a start-up company without much experience and limited resources, having a business plan written can be difficult, but if done correctly it can make or break your business.
Executive Summary
The executive summary comes first in the business plan, but it should be the last thing you write. This is because it has to be very clear and concise, summarizing all of the key points of your business plan in less than two pages. It's your opportunity to summarize three or four key points about your company - including its mission statement, its goals for growth and what makes it different from competitors - before diving into details. Your executive summary should be no more than two pages long, with brief summaries of other sections of the plan.
It’s essential if you’re seeking a loan or investment
The purpose of a business plan is to give any potential investors or lenders an idea of how you plan to run your business. If your business is just starting out, it’s important to not only have a plan in place but to make sure you revisit it and update it on a regular basis so that you can stay on track and adjust as needed.
It’s essential if you’re seeking a loan or investment. Investors who are considering putting money into your company will want to see that you’ve put time and effort into creating a thorough plan.
It helps you find holes in your plan before they happen. It may be difficult to think about your business failing, but planning ahead and mapping out what could happen can help save your business if things do go awry.
It outlines goals and details how you plan to achieve them. Having a step-by-step guide can keep everyone on the same page and working toward the same goal.
It helps you understand costs and where money needs to be allocated. Starting and running a small business requires a lot of money, so it’s important to know up front where all of your funds will come from, how much you need for start-up expenses and how much of that you can use for personal survival.
Market Analysis
Market Analysis is one of the most important elements of a business plan. The plan needs to identify the target market segments and then provide some data to indicate how fast each segment is growing. The size of the target market should be described in terms of number of clients, revenues or geographic area. There should be enough information included about the target market to demonstrate that there is an opportunity for the product or service being proposed.
In addition to addressing the target market and its growth, the Market Analysis section should describe any trends within the industry that will affect potential sales of the business being proposed. For example, if a new technology is expected to make a product obsolescent, this should be identified in this section so that it can be addressed later in the marketing strategy section.
Sales & Marketing Plan
Sales and marketing is the method of generating interest in a product or service, with the goal of getting a customer to buy that product or service. Sales and marketing entails everything from online advertising to cold calls to developing a customer referral program. It also includes tracking customer information, such as their buying habits and preferences, using customer relationship management (CRM) software.
Marketing plans are developed by all types of businesses, large and small, for-profit and not-for-profit enterprises. Marketing plans are used to describe how an organization can implement its marketing strategies.
Create a marketing plan that details your sales strategy for your business. Depending on the type of business you have, this will be different for every business owner. For example, if you have a restaurant business, you will want to include information about your menu items, pricing, location and target market in your plan. You should also consider your competition and how you will differentiate yourself. If you have an internet business selling products or services, include information about how you will market your website and drive traffic to it in your plan.
Financials
The financials section of your business plan should include a sales forecast, expenses budget, cash flow statement, balance sheet and a profit and loss statement. This is an interesting part of the business planning process because you really need to know your numbers. Don't worry if you don't have all your costs down yet. Some things will be hard to estimate until you get started, but it's important to put down some numbers even if they are just estimates.
It is better to overestimate than underestimate because overestimating will cause you to save money or raise more capital before starting up in case you underestimate your expenses. This is money you will need for unexpected problems that arise during construction or opening and for working capital in the early months before revenue starts coming in. It can take several months or even years for a new business to become profitable.
In the end, a business plan can provide a solid foundation for your business, and will help keep you focused on these key areas to ensure that the business is profitable. Business owners must know how to run their company in order to ensure its success. Having an outline of possible scenarios that could happen and how to handle them ahead of time are going to allow small businesses to thrive. Having this information and being prepared will allow companies to succeed much faster than a company without one. | https://govc.com/the-main-reasons-a-business-plan-is-important-for-small-businesses/ |
Published November 16, 2022
There’s a lot of talk in modern business about being customer-centric, but it can be hard to grasp what exactly that means.
In this article we’ll explore:
A customer-centric organisation is focused on providing a great customer experience at every touchpoint. Customers’ needs and perspectives are placed at the centre of the organisation, not in opposition to the organisation’s own interests, but because they will help in achieving those interests.
To create a customer-centric organisation, you need to start by understanding your customers and their needs. Once you understand your customers, you can rebuild your organisation around them. This means creating processes and systems that are customer-focused and ensuring that your employees are aligned with your customer-centric mission. Truly customer-centric organisation design takes time and effort, but the rewards justify the investment.
A customer-centric organisation puts the needs of its customers at the centre of everything it does. This means creating an experience tailored to their individual needs and preferences, making sure that every touchpoint with the organisation is designed with the customer in mind.
There are a few key things that you need to do in order to create a customer-centric organisation design:
The first step is to understand who your customers are and what their needs are. One of the key characteristics of customer-centric organisations is that they recognise the variety of their customers, adapt their offerings for different customer cohorts, and make it easier for customers to find products and services designed for them.
To do this, you need to segment your customer base and create customer personas. These are types or groups of customers who use your services, and how you define them will depend upon your business. They might be demographic groups who use your services differently, as identified by your CRM analytics. They might be users of different product lines. If you have call centre operatives who know your customers well, their experience might feed into the definitions. However you choose to define these personas, you should ensure that these groups bear some relationship to the real experience of people using your products, so that they represent different customer cohorts with different wants and needs.
Once you’ve identified your personas, take some time to understand them in detail. Different groups will interact with you in different ways and use different products or services. The lines between them may not be clear-cut, but you can identify and analyse key cohorts. This will help you to understand the needs and preferences of your customer segments and ensure that you are tailoring your customer experience to them.
The next step is to map out the customer journey. It’s an important principle of customer-centric organisation design that you look at the experience from the customer’s perspective, not your own, and this is the place to bring that principle to life.
For each group of customers, map out the customer journey from the first point of contact with your organisation to the final purchase or interaction. Depending on how your processes and products work, you might end up with a branching map full of varied options or a linear progression through your business’s processes. Don’t just accept what the process looks like in theory but examine customer data to understand how this works in practice. Make a note of how customers feel at different points in the process, where you see complaints or compliments, what works well and what doesn’t. Recording the time it takes to get from one step to the next can be valuable in understanding the process and mapping out how to optimise this process.
Once you’ve mapped out your customer journeys, use them to identify pain points and areas where the customer experience could be improved. Think about what you can do to overcome the problems and accentuate the positive parts of the customer experience.
Once you have a good understanding of your customer segments and the customer journey, you need to make sure that you are putting the customer at the centre of everything you do. This involves rewriting procedures not just to fix the obvious failures but to enforce a customer focus from top to bottom.
Design every touchpoint with the customer in mind, making sure that your customer experience is tailored to their individual needs. Think about each interaction from the customer’s point of view: how does it look, what is easy to manage, what is difficult, what information do they need and what guidance could help?
Build your processes around what works for customers.
It’s not enough to do this once and then sit back. There will be things that you miss the first time around, and the needs of customers, both as groups and as individuals, will change over time. You must continuously measure the customer experience and look for ways to improve.
This work should be guided by data, to ensure that you’re responding to customer needs and not the preferences of your teams. There are a variety of metrics that you can use to measure your performance, and some are more relevant to the customer's perspective than others. Find a way to collect feedback from customers, whether through surveys, meetings or call conversations, or other points of interaction. Keep track of customer retention and satisfaction levels, then relate these to your processes so that you can identify any areas where the customer experience is falling short. Use this data to continuously improve the customer experience.
If in doubt about where to improve next, ask yourself, what does a customer-centric organisation look like? How could these processes be changed to make them easier for customers? Then push toward that goal.
There are many interconnected benefits to a building a customer-centric organisation, lets look at these in more detail:
A customer focus in an organisation has the benefit of encouraging customers to focus on the organisation in return. When customers feel valued and their needs are being met, they are more likely to remain loyal. This can lead to increased customer lifetime value and repeat business.
This loyalty is driven by increased customer satisfaction, a benefit in itself. By using a customer-centric organisation design to put customers at the heart of everything you do, you increase their satisfaction with your company. This reduces the number of problems and complaints your teams have to handle while increasing positive customer reviews and referrals. This leads to more, happier customers.
This helps to create a big advantage against less customer-centric competition. When customers are happy, they will give you more business and tell others about your company. This is great for raising your company’s profile and drawing positive attention away from competitors.
This competitive advantage leads to the bottom-line benefit of a customer-centric organisation: increased revenue. Happy customers are more likely to spend more with a company. This can lead to increased sales and revenue. The old paradigm of ruthless businesses out-competing their touchy-feely rivals has long been proven false. Caring about your customers, putting time and effort into making them happy, can increase your earnings.
A strong reputation builds brand equity—the value in your company derived not from your products and services but from the way that consumers view you. Brand equity is vital for any organisation, as it draws business and allows you to set profitable prices. By ensuring a customer focus in your organisation you can deliver a great customer experience and improve your organisation’s reputation, leading to increased brand equity.
The benefits of a customer-centric culture aren’t just external. Intrinsic motivations are more powerful than extrinsic ones, meaning that the chance to have a positive impact on customers can be more motivating than many other rewards. Employees who feel that their organisation is focused on the customer are more likely to be engaged and motivated because they feel like they’re making a difference. This can lead to improved employee productivity and performance.
When your organisation is customer-centric, you are more likely to make decisions that are in line with your customers’ needs and preferences. Seeing your processes from their perspective helps you to identify and remove flaws as well as to shape better products. This can lead to improved operational efficiency and effectiveness, as processes deliver what customers want, in a way that suits them.
Putting customers first is one of the best ways to build quality into your organisation. By aligning everything you do around what customers need, you improve your business and gain a range of competitive advantages. If it’s not how you currently operate then it can involve a lot of effort at the start, but once a customer-centric approach is embedded it becomes self-perpetuating, so that the most efficient approach naturally emerges from the way you work.
Join the Kaizan Community for access to exclusive events, as well as the latest best practices on delivering exceptional Client Service. Sign up here. | https://kaizan.ai/blog-posts/building-a-customer-centric-organisation |
Written by Sachin Bhate, Director of Marketing & Innovation — Proxima 360
If the past two years have taught us anything, it is that understanding your business’s customers is vital to its continued success and longevity. Being able to identify customer demographics is no longer enough. In order to truly understand customers, businesses need to be able to identify their needs, wants, and problems at each point in their journey. This allows businesses to not only gain a better understanding of who their customers are, but why they choose to do business with their company over a competitor.
In being able to establish quantitative and qualitative metrics for each step of the customer’s journey, businesses can transmute those insights into effective strategies and internal initiatives. Creating a map of the customer journey can not only help businesses visualize those insights and key data points, but also deliver clearer information regarding their customer retention and/or attrition rates, allowing them to make the best decisions for both the company and its customers.
In this article, I want to help businesses understand what a customer journey map should look like, how it works, and how it adds value to them and their customers alike.
What a customer journey map is and how to start one
Putting it simply, a customer journey map is a visual representation of each interaction a customer has with your business, its brand, and the products or services it offers. The purpose of creating this map is to place yourself in the shoes and mind of the customer, in order to better know what experiences are adding value, which ones are not, and which could stand to be improved.
A customer journey map allows you — as a business owner, leader, or manager — to physically see each separate touchpoint a customer has with your business or brand. From the first time a customer hears about or sees your business advertised to them, to their direct interactions with its website and products or services, and into their interaction(s) with your customer support teams, a customer journey map showcases all of this.
Just as no two businesses are exactly alike, neither are two customer journeys (or their maps). Rather than trying to create a map that aligns with all types of customers your business has, start by creating one that best aligns with those who your business needs to focus on retaining most. The process of creating this map typically adheres to the following process:
Step 1: Identify the customer persona
A customer persona is an average representation of the type of customer your company does business with. The persona consists of factors including the customer’s age, geographic location, job role, and other information found through market research. Placing yourself in the shoes of this customer persona allows you to get a better understanding of why that type of customer does business with your company and its offerings.
Step 2: Identify which data points to measure
Now that you have the customer’s persona outlined, the next step is to decide which data points from that type of customer you want to measure in order to meet your business’s goals. This is where your customer journey map will become customizable not just to your business or its products/services, but also to its customers. For instance, perhaps you want to more closely measure data from each step of the customer journey after a sale is made to better understand your product success, or pre-sale data to learn how you can attract and retain a larger amount of new customers. All of this information is customizable and should evolve over time to better meet the needs of your business and align them to those of your customers.
Step 3: Organize the map using different stages (i.e., touchpoints)
With the customer persona and data metrics now identified, the final step in creating a customer journey map is to organize it into different stages. These stages are used to identify each separate touchpoint (i.e., interaction) a customer has with your business, its products/services, and/or its support team throughout their journey. It’s worth noting that you should be stringent with the touchpoints you include, as attempting to include all of them can quickly inundate your internal data. Instead, try forming a unique touchpoint for each stage of the customer journey based upon their needs (outlined from the above Step 1).
How customer journey maps improve CX and overall value
By visualizing what your customers experience with your business or brand, you can more clearly understand the pain points that might occur at each different touchpoint in real-time. The purpose of this is two-fold; firstly, to better connect with your customers on a more personal level, and secondly to improve your company’s overall quality of CX.
Imagine a time when you were unable to have a product you ordered arrive on time, or in which you were unable to get in contact with a business or brand’s customer support team on an issue you had after making a purchase. Now, think of how that experience left you feeling dissatisfied. That is precisely the same feeling mapping your customers’ journey is working to alleviate through prioritizing your business’s CX.
Mapping the customer journey is a process not only meant for improving a business or brand’s credibility, profitability, or sales volumes. Rather, it is a practice in the art of empathy. Studies have shown that businesses who better understand their customers and approach them with empathy at touchpoints in their journey when their needs are highest tend to be more profitable and successful than their competitors. By creating a customer journey map that fits both your business’s goals and those of your customers, your company will be able to improve its CX quality, and thus, customer retention rates over time, leading to a stronger business overall.
Proxima360
Proxima360 is the retail consulting division of Dotcom Team LLC, offering services nationwide for 21 years across the retail information technology ecosystem. Proxima360 is focused on creating end to end solutions that optimizes the retail operational landscape. They get the Retail ERP and POS implementations or enhancements right the first time even when others may have failed. Key focus areas of Proxima360 are – ERP Solutions for Retail, Machine Learning for Finance, Digital Transformation and Supply Chain Optimization, and POS systems. Proxima360 understands that every business has different needs, as well as different operating budgets, and they specialize in delivering a solution for each business’s unique need. | https://marketdaily.com/mapping-the-customers-journey/ |
8-1: Define the business model.
The business model is the framework for creating and delivering consumer value, while extracting value for the entrepreneur as well.
8-2: Identify the four core areas of a business model.
Broken into four parts, each business model includes an offering, customers, infrastructure, and financial viability.
8-3: Explore the importance of the Customer Value Proposition in further detail.
The CVP outlines exactly how the firm will generate value, how it will generate it in excess of its competition, and how it will continue to do so in the future. As the true measure of any business is creating value, the true measure of a business model is its customer value proposition.
8-4: Describe the different types of Customer Value Propositions and learn how to identify your target customers.
Businesses tend to have different CVPs for each customer segment. This is to ensure they are meeting the needs of the customers within each segment. Examples of different customer segments targeted by different types of businesses include mass market, niche market, segmented market, diversified market, and multisided markets. Types of CVPs include all-benefits, points of difference, and resonating focus.
8-5: Identify the nine components of the business model canvas.
The four core elements of a business model can be expanded to nine business model components. Separating core elements into their respective components makes them easier to define and integrate with one another. The offering constitutes the (1) value proposition. Customers relate to (2) customer segments, (3) channels, and (4) customer relationships. Infrastructure includes (5) key activities, (6) key resources, and (7) key partners. Financial viability includes (8) cost structure and (9) revenue streams. | https://edge.sagepub.com/neckentrepreneurship/student-resources/chapter-8/learning-objectives |
What does no market need mean?
No market need means the solution doesn't solve any needs of the market.
More often than not, startups are more interested in solving the problem rather than solving the problem that of interest to the needs of the consumer.
In Marketing Matters Now More Than Ever by Denise Lee Yohn, she mentioned, "Marketing, therefore, needs to be less about what happens after an innovation is ready to launch, and more about getting it to be ready in the first place -- by creating a new market or expanding an existing one; developing or understanding how it will fit into customers’ needs, wants, values, and lives; and building a customer experience that turns the offering into a complete customer solution".
To identify the solution you need to solve, according to Scott Maxwell (founder & partner of OpenView), "As Aulet suggests, the best way to get info about the market is to practice a vigorous form of market research".
Ideally, it is essential to always look for a relevant market need (pain point) first, before creating new ideas for a solution.
Definition of market need
Market need is defined as "a marketing concept that refers to the functional and emotional needs or desire of the target market".
According to the Business Dictionary, in a marketing context, a need is "a driver of human action which marketers try to identify, emphasize, and satisfy, and around which promotional efforts are organized".
Return to Glossary of business failures or read "No Market Validation".
Create a free account to discover insights and learn business failures.
Last edited on 18 April 2020. | https://viewpoints.flipidea.co/no-market-need/ |
Construction solutions provider, Saint Gobain, wanted to create a website specifically targeted at self-builders and renovators. we created a website built on a deep understanding of the end-user’s needs and pain points, supported by intuitive UX and UI, as well as human-centric design.
We carried out extensive consumer research, gathering quantitative insights, from primary research to customer strategy workshops, in order to better understand the target personas and support the development of the customer journey.
Client:
Saint-Gobain
Campaign:
End-consumer Website
Services:
Strategy. Creative. Content. | https://jwi-global.com/project/innovatively-building-relationships-in-a-new-market/ |
• It is most applicable to manufacturing of physical products as opposed to services.
• It is a one-way chain involving pushing products to the customer; it does not highlight the importance of understanding customer needs through market research and responsiveness through innovation and new product development.
• The internal value chain does not emphasise the importance of value networks (although Porter (1980) did produce a diagram that indicated network relationships).
1 Customer information collected on a transactional e-commerce site can develop greater understanding of the purchasing behaviour of its target customers, which can also be analysed in terms of demographic profiles through tracking online shopping preferences and sequences.
2 Service-oriented relationship building sites can collect information as part of creating a dialogue using profiling forms, feedback forms and forums on the site enabling their owners to better understand customer characteristics and purchasing behaviour.
3 Brand building sites also have opportunities to collect information about the profiles and preferences of their site visitors or those in their target market using third-party sites.
4 Portal or media sites can potentially use visitors to contribute content. Think of the BBC web site which now has feedback on its news, sport and entertainment sites, so adding value to its visitors. Even well-known media owner Rupert Murdoch has suggested that online newspapers consider recruiting bloggers to add value to their audiences (Murdoch, 2005). | https://www.zabanga.us/internet-marketing-2/restructuring-the-internal-value-chain.html |
How Relentless Quality in Market Research Perfects the Strategic Planning Process
Surviving in business depends on a well-established strategic planning process — and not just for new businesses. This ensures that a business establishes its priorities and correctly focuses its efforts and resources in order to obtain them.
Despite the importance of this process, up to 67% of strategic planning fails.
You can build an effective strategic planning process with market research, but you’ll need to use the proper market research tool.
That’s because in the demanding world of business today, market research tools must provide relentless quality in order to sustain a strategic plan.
This article explains the strategic planning process and how a market research platform that provides relentless quality can support this effort.
Understanding the Strategic Planning Process
This process involves all the activities that your business performs as part of strategic planning, the organizational management activity used to identify priorities, set goals, map out a direction, produce strategies, allocate resources, and make decisions to accomplish the goals.
This process plans the fundamental course that your business should take, along with its actions, while layings out what your business seeks to do, who it will serve, and why it will do so. It is built with a focus on the long-term.
In the strategic planning process, your business must cover as many bases surrounding itself as possible, including where it currently stands, where it is going, where it seeks to go, and what it’s striving to achieve. Additionally, the strategic plan must include all the actions required to accomplish its goals based on this evaluation.
The strategic planning process also includes measuring the effect of its activities and whether your business has achieved the kind of results it sought., It is therefore an exhaustive process that involves strategy, exchanging ideas, testing and implementation.
Essentially, the strategic planning process centers on a catalog of steps that managers must follow to form and implement a strategy within a company. This process aligns the entire company around its main goals and how to execute them. As such, it is also meant to create transparency, so that no employees are left wondering about the objectives of a company and how to incorporate them into their daily work.
The Importance of a Well-Executed Strategic Planning Process
It is critical to establish a solid strategic planning process for a number of reasons. Without clearly established goals and plans, your business would be navigating in the completely uncharted and unaided territory.
As for the process itself, your business must understand the steps it will need to take to tackle its goals, especially since many of them are mid-to-long-term goals. The following lists the various benefits of a well-executed strategic planning process:
- It sets a clear set of goals and an honest assessment of an organization’s strengths and weaknesses.
- It reveals what is most important, relevant, and actionable in business, removing the guesswork.
- It offers plans on how to achieve its goals, with different ideas that businesses can smartly put to the test.
- It helps companies understand how they can improve their performance.
- It shows businesses where their biggest challenges lie, whether it is in your business itself or external factors (laws, changing trends, customer behaviors, etc).
- It prevents businesses from performing tasks that will yield little to no growth or benefits.
- It enables businesses to respond to a change or an issue with preparation, lowering stress and the difficulty of handling the unknown.
- It fosters and upgrades the technical abilities of your workforce or product.
- It aligns employees and shareholders with business objectives and visions.
- It determines KPIs so that businesses can track progress based on data.
When to Use the Strategic Planning Process
Strategic planning is an ongoing activity, therefore its process should not be applied just once. Although mainly used by new companies and startups, strategic planning should be involved at various stages, especially those that are bent on making change.
As for scheduling the process, this will vary based on the needs and experiences of your business and its external settings, such as its niche, target market, or competitors.
The strategic planning process should be regularly carried out in a business that operates in a frequently changing industry, such as the SaaS industry, for example. In this case, this kind of process should take place 1-2 times a year.
If your business has existed for a long time and is in a slow-moving market, it can carry out a lesser frequency of one strategic planning process a year. This should involve updating in which only certain parts of the process.
Aside from new businesses, all businesses should perform strategic planning when taking on any new venture, whether it is an acquisition, a new department, product, or branding change.
Businesses that are in an unstable or semi-stable marketplace should conduct the strategic planning process at least once a year in preparation for the coming fiscal year. By doing so, they can identify the organizational goals to accomplish in the coming fiscal year, along with finding the resources to obtain the goals.
In this way, this process is a must for budget planning. However, businesses will not need to complete every step of the process each year, as the full strategic planning process should be conducted at least once every three years. As mentioned previously, it should be conducted every year when businesses or their external environments undergo a massive change.
Although longtime businesses in stable marketplaces don’t need to conduct this process yearly, they must review it once a year to determine any new action items and to determine whether anything should be removed.
How Market Research Supports the Strategic Planning Process
Market research is invaluable to the strategic planning process, as it provides a stable foundation for virtually every step of the process.
This form of research provides insights on your business’s target market and industry at large, the kind of crucial data that supports a vast array of decision-making.
That is because creating objectives and planning activities around them based on intuition is dangerous and costly. Unfortunately, many businesses do not pay enough attention to their market research data, or any sort of data, as over half of the data businesses obtain goes unused.
This is a major misstep as market research offers relevant information on the heart of your business: its consumer base. A strong market research tool can help your business reap the most updated data on its target market, along with specific market segments.
In this way, using a primary source of research is superior to conducting secondary research alone, as secondary research may not be fully updated, relevant to your business’s specific needs, or involve using questions that a particular business needs to address.
Market research provides the key insights that a strategic planning process needs, as it sets concrete objectives and lays out concrete processes, all of which require time and resources. By gathering and analyzing market research, your business can gain a competitive advantage, one that yields 10 percent in sales growth and higher margins.
A market research survey in particular is a potent way of extracting the kinds of insights that set a strategic planning process in motion. Surveys are versatile and can take various forms, from customer satisfaction surveys like the NPS to employee feedback surveys, to B2B surveys, and many more.
They are devised to help your business understand a number of issues, such as product satisfaction, product needs, opinions, aversions, user experience, and much more. You can create them with any sort of questions, depending on the market research platform they use.
In order to create a strong strategic planning process, businesses should turn to a market research tool that offers relentless quality.
How a Platform Offering Relentless Quality Perfects the Strategic Planning Process
Obtaining a market research platform that is built on relentless quality is difficult to come by. While this may be a tall order, given that there are so many tools marketed in this way(but not verbatim), only a few deliver on this promise.
The Pollfish market research tool, on the other hand, delivers relentless quality, the kind designed to provide a 360-degree assessment of all the factors involved in a strategic planning process.
Whether your business needs to determine its specific market segments through market segmentation or weed out survey fraud and faulty responses with artificial intelligence, Pollfish offers both and much more.
It also uses a viable sampling method to gain timely responses in a randomized way to limit survey bias. This method is known as random device engagement (RDE) and it is extremely effective at gaining responses from a target market the natural way, by deploying surveys across a vast network of digital properties that users visit voluntarily, meaning that they are not forced to take a survey or are pre-recruited.
It helps your business gain intelligence at virtually every aspect of the business relating to its customers and employees, which helps hammer out reasonable objectives and a market research budget for a strategic planning process.
Additionally, businesses can use the Pollfish platform for the following aspects of their strategic planning process:
- Finding funding priorities
- Gauging customer-service satisfaction
- Discovering new customer needs that can help set off new product launches
- Identifying the backbone of strategic goals
- Discovering whether a business needs to change its branding direction
The Pollfish platform allows businesses to gain access to all of these factors and more in a friction-free way, as the platform is user-friendly; there are only three main steps to make your own survey.
The platform uses quality checks to remove any below-par data, such as repetitive answers (flatlining), gibberish answers, VPN use, and more. It does so through a machine learning system that cancels out the need for manual quality checks.
It also offers 24-hour support from a dedicated team of market researcher experts. As such it is possible to perfect a strategic planning process, as long as it is done with the proper market research tool. Because the Pollfish online survey platform offers proven relentless quality, your business should look no further and use Pollfish for all their strategic planning needs.
Do you want to distribute your survey? Pollfish offers you access to millions of targeted consumers to get survey responses from $0.95 per complete. Launch your survey today. | https://resources.pollfish.com/market-research/how-relentless-quality-in-market-research-perfects-the-strategic-planning-process/ |
By focusing attention on setting understandable performance expectation, it will help the employees know what is expected of them to be successful on the job. HRM defines career development goals as part of the process they make it very clear how the current position supports employee growth and additional opportunities the employee may explore. HRM should inspire employees to strive and achieve the company’s mission statement and objectives. Corporation and the employees should understand how an employee contributes to the organization. With customary discussions on feedback, coaching and position updates encourage flexibility.
It firstly identifies the skills matrices for the organisation and then delves into what the current competencies are of each individual against this predefined set of skills required to fulfill a specific role. The outcome of the skills audit process is a skills gap analysis. This information will enable the organisation to improve by providing the appropriate training and development to individuals to cater for the identified skill gaps. The skills audit process will also provide information which can be used for purposes such as internal employee selection and to ensure that the correct person is deployed in each position. 2.
3CJA- Contributing to the Process of Job Analysis 1.1, 1.2, 2.1 Explain the Principles and Purpose of Job Analysis Job analysis is an important function of HR, which is related with many activities of HR Management. It can help a company to run their staffing activities more efficiently and effectively. It can contribute to cutting costs and time saving. Job analysis can be defined as “A systematic exploration, study and recording the responsibilities, duties, skills, accountabilities, work environment and ability requirements of a specific job.” It can support recruitment plans, position posting and performance development. When a company creates a new job they must come up with a job analysis of the role so HR knows what kind of job applicant they need to recruit.
Most successful organisation know how to mobilise the right people and move them around to meet the needs of the organisation the organisation. Moving people around should be based on matching individual skills with organisational needs. Once an organisation knows the areas in which shortages and excesses exist, they can proceed with their workforce plans and devise strategist ensure that they have the right number of staff in every area of the organisation or to ensure that staff numbers are correctly allocated to the right tasks. The organisation you work for has asked you to analyse their existing workforce to determine areas where there are excesses or shortages or requirements for mobilisation. How would you do this?
This knowledge means that they will use techniques in recruiting and selecting those adequate and qualified candidates for the required open positions that are available to be filled. Creating a work environment in which employees are productive is essential to increased profits for your organization, corporation or small business. One of the ways this is done is thru adequate training. Training is the process of giving the companies employees the knowledge and skills to complete the job or jobs they were hired for. Another way how an human resource department can make a pleasant environment for employees is through employee development.
1)." Allen 1998 "Supervisors develop an effective training program by assessing training needs and designing training programs to meet those needs (para. 13)." Â An effective orientation and training program needs to incorporate the employee's job function. By breaking down what is required of an employee and assessing what skills the employee already has one can implement an orientation and training program that will benefit the company as well as the
Recruitment and selection are two sides of the same coin. , Applicant recruitment and employee selection form a major part of an organization's overall resourcing strategies, which identify and secure people needed for the organization to survive and succeed in the short- to medium-term. Recruitment activities need to be responsive to the increasingly competitive market to secure suitably qualified and capable recruits at all levels. To be effective, these initiatives need to include how and when to source the best recruits, internally or externally. Common to the success of either are: well-defined organizational structures with sound job design, robust task and person specification and versatile selection processes, reward, employment relations and human resource policies, underpinned by a commitment for strong employer branding and employee engagement and on-boarding strategies.
M1 Explain how the management of human, physical and technological resources can improve the performance of a selected organisation. In this assignment, I am going to show and explain how Tesco manages the three main types of resources. Ensuring that the human, physical and technological resources are carried out correctly can increase the performance of Tesco business. HUMAN RESOURSES. Management of human resources is very important of an organisation, the management should therefore find the right approach to their employees to be able to plan and manage them in a professional manner.
These are crucial components to evaluating a program and its effectiveness in the workplace. These components can also help a company to decide if they should continue to use the training system and invest more money or head in a new direction. The first criteria is the reaction criteria. This criteria measures the impressions of the trainees. This will include their assessment of the training program that can actually be used in the work place.
2. Explain the importance of measuring competencies Competencies are what organizations’ need to know and understand. Strategies implement the competent force of employees. Many organizations develop competency representations aligned with organizational strategy and have linked them to Human Resources (HR) processes. A competency ideal describes the combination of knowledge, skills, and qualities needed for employees. | https://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/Job-Analysis-Pros-Cons-And-Suggestion-439902.html |
Are you passionate about working closely with managers & Employees on Human Resources topics for our Tunis office? Then read on!
This role will report to the Senior HR Site Manager and will be part of the HR Business Partner team.
In this role, you will be supporting HR initiatives and act as an adviser on human resource matters for various functions within the Tunis office taking into consideration local culture, legal landscape, historical practices. You will be expected to have the “on the ground” pulse of the organization and closely partnering with the managers on site to understand the local environment. You should be a proactive communicator, detail oriented and highly organized; someone who can successfully balance employee needs with business objectives. Duties for the HR Business Partner will include employee relations and investigations, Compliance & Employee Relations Policy guidance and interpretation, management coaching, executing HR initiatives, enhancing staff performance, supporting employee development, and managing talent development processes.
As part of the HR team, you will need to be able to execute on projects and have strong global collaboration skills. Our office has several groups reporting to managers outside of the location, so this role will have global stakeholders and need to be able to operate in a highly matrixed environment.
The ideal candidate for this role should have a good understanding of business functions, exceptional communication skills, good interpersonal skills with a strong background in HR Partnership & employee relations.
Your role will involve:
- Conduct internal investigations and make recommendations to management as appropriate.
- Recommend Performance Evaluation Methods
- Guide managers regarding: problem solving, personal & professional development, performance issues and discipline.
- Identifying on policy needs, and owning policy creation and implementation related to Employee Relations on site
- Gather Employee Feedback & Identify areas of improvement
- Proactively identifying exit trends and propose and recommend solutions.
- Advice and Guide Managers on comp & Ben methodology and practices.
- Make recommendations for structural change or adjustments to market positioning and overall levels for constituent parts of the reward package.
- Maintain an in-depth knowledge of the legal requirements, internal and external, related to the day-to-day management of employees within the business, reducing legal risks, guaranteeing regulatory compliance, and most importantly enabling employee satisfaction and retention.
- Providing Compliance & Employee Relations Policy guidance and interpretation.
- Analyze data on organization structure, accountabilities and spans of control to support the business case for redesign.
- Serve as a proactive, valuable resource to employees and management to formulate partnerships that reflect the business objectives of the organization
- Employee Development – Ensuring creation and fulfillment of individual & team development plans, participating in designing, evaluation and monitoring of training needs and success of the programs.
- Implementation of various HR initiatives like critical talent, succession planning, benefits, employee engagement survey etc. along with the Senior HR Site Leader.
In return, you will bring:
- 5+ years of HR experience, preferably in HR Partnership & Employee Relation in multinational company
- Working knowledge of Tunisian employment laws
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English & French
- Exceptional relationship building skills in order to gain support and achieve results
- Knowledge of mediation, negotiation, and conflict resolution methods
- Ability to act as a Key Account Manager to key stakeholders in the business
- Action orientation and comfortable with very fast pace and rapid change
- Influencing skills & Flexibility to interact with employees at all levels
- Self-directed and self-motivated
- Relevant industry experience a plus
So if you are up for this new challenge in a fast-paced, yet friendly and supportive environment, apply now and send your CV in English! | https://jobs.vistaprint.com/Vistaprint/job/Tunis-HR-Business-Partner-No-s/621504700/ |
Sam is an instructional designer. Wherever there is a crisis, every course developer comes to him for expert advice. He has a solution to almost every e-learning problem, but when it comes to client meetings, the project managers bring Helen, not Sam. He is the go-to person for all learning technology problems but not for client relationships. The reason is simple: While they spent time and money training Sam on technology, they didn’t realize that he needs help in other areas as well.
Many human resources (HR) teams make this error: They focus on training rather than overall development. Is there a difference? Doesn’t training lead to development? Not necessarily; training is often just the tip of the development iceberg.
In his book “Attracting and Retaining Talent: Becoming an Employer of Choice” Tim Baker argues that the traditional training approach is based almost exclusively on developing employees’ technical skills. Training provides a production-centered approach, and what organizations need is for HR and learning and development (L&D) to focus on person-centered and problem-solving approaches as well.
When HR Alone Is Not Enough
The human resources organization is expected to do many things. It pays salaries, ensures compliance and addresses grievances. It also trains employees, usually through onboarding and on-the-job training. However, it’s not enough to train on job skills; organizations must also identify what motivates employees and align training accordingly. There must be a shared vision on what leaders want and what employees want.
It is easy to underestimate the importance of personal development and its impact on overall performance. However, today’s workforce expects a wide-ranging approach to development beyond the traditional reliance on technical training. The primary motivation for an organization to invest in personal development is to enhance the personal qualities and skills that will have a positive impact on overall work.
The Mental Models of HR and L&D
There is a difference between how HR professionals think about learning and growth and how L&D professionals think about it. The usual approach to training is a narrow interpretation of learning and development. It’s important to dig deeper and broaden the approach in order to enhance employees’ skills and help them become intrinsically motivated to work.
These differences demonstrate how organizations should structure their learning initiatives. You can debate the benefits of either approach, but there can be no debate that we should focus on employees’ growth and retention. There is no arguing with a holistic approach toward human development.
The Hybrid Solution
We are living in the “Conceptual Age,” according to author Daniel Pink — the age of “a whole new mind,” where design thinking is as important as analytics and where higher-order thinking and creative problem-solving are the basis of business growth. Is technical training sufficient for this age, or do we need a hybrid solution to train and prepare the Sams of the world?
Modern, L&D and HR teams must operate as a hybrid function. In this model, L&D develops professional and leadership development programs, sets and enforces standards, and manages learning platforms and tools. HR develops and deploys technical training and, often, the delivery of enterprise programs. This structure allows for better connections with business units, enables more personalized learning and development, and meets the needs of the business.
The Next Steps
According to a 2015 survey by CIPD (formerly known as the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development), “in over two-fifths of organisations L&D is a specialist function/role within the HR department and in one-fifth it is part of generalist HR activities. In just under two-fifths L&D activities are split between HR and another area of the business, or are completely separate from the HR function.” It’s becoming necessary to differentiate between HR and L&D; organizations must ensure that employees can see results with the continuous upgrade of their skills and efficiency.
Though it shouldn’t matter which department manages the learning and development function, unless HR departments can support the expanded personal development needs of employees, it’s time to hand over the reins to the L&D. | https://trainingindustry.com/blog/strategy-alignment-and-planning/when-is-it-time-to-create-a-separate-ld-function/ |
Developing Individuals and teams is important to build internal structure of organisation strong, It will recognise as own professional development by improving the performance in which they are working such as H&M. High performance of team aids the organisation to reach on top position in market throughattaining effectiveness in their operations. It helps in determining interconnection between effectiveness of an individual, team and organization to consider as business development is an essential element for every organization (Boer and et. al.,2017). This report helps in gaining awareness of learning and determining development needs are linked in their future engagement. This assignment covers appropriate skills and knowledge that are required by HR professionals, it helps in determining personal skills audit to identify training and development. Also, bring highlight on professional development plan forJane Cambridgein HR officer role of H&M enterprise. Basically, developing of individuals and team will also able to contribute development of others and make positive contribution in sustainable growth of a business enterprise that is H&M company.
P1. Determine appropriate knowledge, skills and behavior that are required by HR professionals
As a HR officer it is necessary to develop an appropriate knowledge, skills and behaviour that are required by HR professionals that helps them in achieving their objectives on time and maintains the performance of an individual employee. This will improves the overall performance of an individual while implementing policies and procedures to build efficiency among existing employees. It will assists in maintaininga balance of staff and develop skills by providing training in attaining their business aims or objectives. This section involves continuing professional development, it defines as an systematic approach of learning activities that professional takes part to develop and enhance their skills. This process helps to manage business development on an ongoing basis(Norros, 2014). If you want sample paper related to Entrepreneur then visit Characteristics to become a successful Entrepreneur.
The importance to determine skills, behaviour and knowledge that are required by HR officer are described in detailed as follows:
On the basis of Skills:
- Communication: It is a fundamental approach towards skill, it will enhance the skills by listening properly what HR officer is commanding on their project work. It assist in coordinating with their subordinates which can lead to better result in maintaining harmony in their workplace.
- Problem resolving: Without resolving issues, H&M company will not able to focus on their major project. It will bring negative impact on business enterprise and reduce the cost production. By resolving problems, it will bring optimal output by enhancing their skills.
On the basis of Behaviour
- Coordination and cooperation: By using above effective method by HR manager in H&M, will bring a positive outcome termed as coordination and cooperation among workers and co- workers of a business firm. By engaging teamwork to their team leader will able to know their team member personally and enables their issues related to work that are assigned them (Knipfer and et. al., 2013) .
- Teamwork: By engaging a teamwork, it will bring a positive impact on H&M business firm by attaining their goals on given time. This will enhance their skills by focusing on an individual performance that will result in higher and cost beneficial production. As a HR officer it plays a crucial role by distributing work into a team, it will bring a optimalresult in terms of business firm.
- Equality: It is an essential element to treat each and every employee equal, otherwise, it will be a major issue will leads to a conflict in an enterprise. By treating each and every worker same, this will bring cohesiveness among employees of an enterprise.
On the basis of Knowledge
It can bring through an individual performance and their talent activities which are focused on an eligibility criteria of an individual performance (Macdonald Burke and Stewart, 2017).
- Employees grievances: This is plays a major role in HR department, as a HR officer it is necessary to check dissatisfaction of an employees what an employee expects from a company and its management. However, employee grievances caused a gap between what employee expects and what a worker receive from an employer.
- Legislation: It maintains laws and order of H&M company. This helps employees in providing safe and better working conditions from any organization. By using labour law in a business firm, it keep healthy environment at workplace.
- Management knowledge: It can be used in keeping a track records of down turns and down falls of an individual basis. This emphasis on organizational moral values and manage trash of a business firm. By using HR strategies, it bring more efficiency and effectiveness among employees at workplace.
P2. Analyse personal skills audit for an employee to identify training and development needs
A personal skills audit is a better way for an individual to determine his or her capability and inevitable to develop a healthy environment(Mellor and et. al., 2011) . It depends upon the area of business in which Jane Cambridge employee is working that varies different area or department and its atmosphere. It is most an effective technique to analyse an individual performance and therefore, adopt various strategies to develop and improve the existing skills and abilities required in a business field. As per the task requirement, Jane Cambridge personal skill audit is discussed in below as:
|Strengths||Weaknesses|
|
|
Using of internet, emails.
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|
Minimum use of database, Unaware about the HR software, Convincing problem, Failed in delivering a proper training session.
|Opportunities||Threats|
|
|
By working on PowerPoint, Writing reports, Produce material to support presentations
|
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Use of excel spreadsheet, Resolving disputes, interviewing, Advising on HR issues.
|LEARNING OBJECTIVE/GOAL||CURRENT PROFICIENCY||DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES||CRITERIA FOR JUDGING SUCCESS||TIME SCALE|
|Usage of database||Little||By doing more and more practices.||Peer group||3 months|
|Requisite to update HR software||No experience||Using high and upgraded technology||Experts||1Month|
|Negotiation skills||Little||By involving more with employer||Senior HR||3 Months|
|Enhancement ofdelivering issue||No experience||Higher authority||6 Months|
P3. Difference between organisational and individual learning.
|Organisational learning||Individual learning|
|This learning is complex and dynamic||This learning is simple as compared to organisational learning|
|In this learning is done in the group level.||This learning is done at individual level|
|Learning should not independent of all individuals.||Learning should be independent of any specific individual.|
|Organisation learning is not effective as individual because of involvement of large people.||Individual learning is effective because of involvement of one individual.|
|Every individual have their own capacity to learn new things||Individual have their own human mind to learn new things.|
|It depends on group abilities and the the interest related to particular thing (Cherubini and Nielsen, 2016).||It depends on individual abilities, interest and motivation of each learner.|
|In this every person in the group does not get the same thing as others.||In this person get the thing on the basis of their mind.|
|Organisational learning decision depend on the whole group.||Under this decision is based on the individual.|
|It a process of developing,retaining and transferring knowledge within internal environment.||It a process of individualised educationtakes on the person for the own development.|
|This process get improves with the time as the company gain experience on how learning take place in organisation.||This process generally remain same or improves slowly asit depends on individual strength and weakness(Anagnostopoulos, Byers and Shilbury, 2014) .|
|In this skills is generally develop only for a limited period.||It develop skills and life long love for learning.|
|This learning may or not remain to the whole life. As every organisation have different culture and theories which person have to learn every time it go to some other new firm.||This learning can change sense of things from child to adult.|
|One person intellectual disabilities and individual disorders can't effect this process.||Intellectual disabilities and disorders can effect learning process.|
|This is done to survive and develop in the particular environment.||This is done to acquire knowledge or skill through study or experiences. The knowledge and skills able to apply in different situations of life.|
Need of Training and development
Training and development is perform in every work place and in society to improve individual capacity to perform some activity. It about generating skills and knowledge in the person to achieve effective performance and the development involves growth of employees (Córdoba and Piki, 2012) . Every organisation put their new employees in new training and development program to make them familiar with firm environment. Whether that employee is experience they need training to make them competent according to their own organisation.
Training and development is need in the organisation to-
- Remove weakness-Every employee have some weakness which can be removed with training and development program. As a training program strengthen employee skills which need to improve for performing organisation activities .Development bring all the employees at the same level of skills .It removes all weak links which can affect the business tasks.
- Consistency- T&D assist employees in having consistent experience and skills. The employee need to have consistent regarding company policies and procedures.
- Employee satisfaction and change-Employees who undergone withtraining and development have the advantage over organisation structure. Expenditure on the training make employees that they are valued. Individual who are appreciated through training process feel more satisfied towards their work.
Training and development is need in the case of change. The technology which bring change ,modify the business functions and create necessity to train employees according to that.
- Increase innovation- Training encourages employees for creativity. New ideas is generated through the process of training and development.
- Quality treatment-The customer is know a days more conscious about the quality of the product. To serve good product to customer there is need of continuous training to workers so that they can work effectively (Bourne, 2016).
P4. Need for continuous learning and professional development
Continuous learning takes place at individual level. Itis the invariant increase of skills and knowledge on individual level. Person expand their ability by continuously developing their skills and knowledge through learning.Continuous learning is necessary to work in change environment and for the life needs. It can be done through reading magazines,articles,publicaton. If you want assistance in your Finance assignment, then you should immediately opt for our Finance Assignment Help.
Professional development is done to increase and improvethe ability of the staff through conferences,meetings,learning opportunities,extra academic degrees etc. (Blandford, 2012) .
There is a huge need of continuous learning in business environment
- Prepare for the uncertain thing- Continuous learning help people to deal with unexpected things which can be in form of job loss, change in work environment etc. Through constant learning employees able to work out of comfort zone and explore new things.
- New ideas generation- New skills help in the generation of new ideas or innovate solution to problems as it open new opportunities.
- Change human perspective- Lifelong learning change attitude and mind about the thing which individual already know. The more people learn, the more different ways get to see on the same situation.
- Enhance performance-Learning improve the performance of the individual in the organisation. Learning should be take place in the areas which need to improve or upgrade through workshops,reading books and online study. If in the work environment some skills is needed that it can only be fulfilled through adaptability of new knowledge.
- High retention rates-Due to continuous change in the environment people does not remain longer in the one organisation and assume to leave in 2- 3years.As they think that their personal growth is not happening in the organisation with the passage of time. But with the bases of lifelong learning workers remain in one organisation. Retention is also necessary for the business otherwise it will charge higher and hamper internal work to appoint large employee in every few years (Stewart and et. al., 2015) .
- Happier employees-Worker feels happier when in the job boss take care of their success and goals apart from the organisation. Young employees who focuses on mentorship assist to reach new heights .As learning able to develop skillsin the employees which provide overallhuman development with organisation development.
- Generate confidence- New learning help the individual in the development of their personality. With this they develop trust and confidence on their abilities which resultant in the increase in the power of taking challenges and exploring new opportunities.
- Improves productivity-With the increase in learning in work environment ,employees are ready to retain in the business. Lack of opportunities for growth force employee to leave the job. As a result of learning and skill development ,top talent retains and help in achievinglong term success and profit. Advanced skilled workers are more productive for firm as compare to depressed skill worker who waste cost and time (Lyons and et. al., 2013) .
P5. HPW contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage
High- performance work system are a groups is apart but integrated with human resource practices that is selection, training, compensation and evaluation. It is designed to enhance employee effectiveness. They should adopt better skills, motivation and other opportunities to perform HR practices which will bring harmony into a business firm. The attitudes of employees are examined that is job satisfaction, commitment towards business organization and empowerment. This will help in enhancement behaviour of the employees towards work.
The best HR mangers will understand that employees are engaged, productivity, performance and customer satisfaction helps in improving their performance motivating them. As a result, they contribute business success and willing put an extra efforts to attain tasks and business goals.
This will bring positive result by increasing their cost production efficiency and ensures the quality of H&M company. By encouraging upward communication which will assist in their ideas and input, this led to bring better communication and reduces conflicts among existing employees.
H&M develops capabilities that allow supply to be done effectively that will maximize profit of a business firm. There are two forms of competitive advantages that is cost advantage and differentiate advantage (Patel, Pettitt and Wilson, 2012).
Cost advantage involves where a firm has lower cost of goods sold. It will increase the demands of goods and services in addition to generate profit. It is a powerful flexibility that is used to drive competitors out of business world. The ordinal part of competitive advantages to differentiate firm's goods and services from existing competitors. It will bring effectiveness by using specific strategy and policies. By using innovative ideas will lose or gain the competition, by constant flow of new ideas will contributing to progress.
Improving quality which reach to customers need that meet their expectation. This will increase consumers demand and meet to specific advertisement which result in higher wealth creation. Use of excellence of services, bring enhancement in user or customer experience, by this user can buy or purchase itself through there own experience. Both employees engagement and competitive advantage will bring an optimal output by contributing high performance work system in H&M business enterprise.
P6. Different approaches to performance management
Performance management is the activity which is done to insure organisation goals achieved or not in a efficient way. It aim is to focus on the performance of department and employees
Measuring performance of employees is necessary in every organisation so that workers does not deviate from their path. It is done in the organisation to know the contribution of employee in firm's success. There are five approaches which are commonly used in the business for evaluating performance are as follow-
- Comparative approach:Under this approach individual performance is compared with that of other individual in the work group. Employees are ranked on the basis of highest to the lowest performer. Forced distribution technique ,paired comparison and graphic scaling technique are the techniques used in comparative approach.
- Attribute approach:This approach emphasizes on individual traits of employees in the organisation. In this performance is evaluated on the basis of graphic rating scale and mixed standard scales. Mixed standard is represented through the statement of good,average and poor. Graphic is done through five point rating scale.
- Behavioural approach: This approach emphasizes on how employee do the job in the organisation. There are two techniques which are used to keep record of effective and ineffective performance. Behaviourally anchored rating scales (BARS) and behavioural observation scales(BOS) (Shevlin, Winter and Flynn, 2013).
- Result approach: Under this evaluation is done on the basis of employee result. This type of evaluation is done through balance scorecard approach. This technique focuses on four things which are finance, customer,learning and growth.
- Quality approach:This approach aim is to satisfy the customer by reducing mistakes and continuous service. Under this employees take regular feedback on the quality of the product and employee from managers and clients to resolve performance problems. It provide help in the assessment of worker and business system and use of various source evaluate performance.
Performance management support the organisation in the form of high performance culture and commitment. This line is stated with the example one organisation in which there is no proper evaluation system make people more lazy and effect their capacity as they think no one is watching them. In this employee performance decrease as they have no on etc. keep check on them. Whereas the H&M companyfollow performance measure techniques have a better impact on employees as they are motivated to perform better. It help employees to increase or improve their capabilities or skills. Measuring employee performance increase the communication between workers and higher authority as discussion of job duties(Mittal and Dhar, 2015).
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, hence it is concluded that, developing an individuals, teams and organisations is an essentialpart of each and every business firm. This involves various skills, abilities and knowledge regarding a HR officer that are needed in H&M company. It enhances the performance and improve their actions by using past experiences, as a result, achieving targets on specified time period. It also, includes an individual work performance and as an organizational performance which can be seen its difference at a time of attaining goals of H&M business firm. To coordinate among their subordinates this is a primary need of every HR manger to have some specific skills which are described in detailed in above task.
REFERENCES
- Boer, H., and et. al.,2017. CI Changes from Suggestion Box to Organisational Learning: Continuous Improvement in Europe and Australia: Continuous Improvement in Europe and Australia. Routledge.
- Norros, L., 2014. Developing human factors/ergonomics as a design discipline. Applied Ergonomics, 45(1), pp.61-71.
- Knipfer, K and et. al., 2013. Reflection as a catalyst for organisational learning. Studies in continuing education, 35(1), pp.30-48.
- Macdonald, I., Burke, C. and Stewart, K., 2017. Systems leadership: Creating positive organisations. Routledge.
- Mellor, N and et. al., 2011. ‘Management standards’ and work-related stress in Great Britain: progress on their implementation. Safety Science, 49(7), pp.1040-1046.
- Cherubini, F. and Nielsen, R.K., 2016. Editorial analytics: How news media are developing and using audience data and metrics. | https://www.globalassignmenthelp.com/free-samples/business-assignment-help/man6706-importance-of-developing-teams-and-individuals-of-h-and-m |
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Human Resources have never been more indispensable than today. The competitive forces that we face today will continue to face in the future demanding organizational excellence. In order to achieve this extended quality, organization’s need to focus on learning, quality development, teamwork, and re engineering. These factors are driven by the way organizations implement things and how employees are treated.
1. HR Can Help in Dispensing Organizational Excellence: To achieve this paradigm shift in the organization excellence there is a need for organizations to reform the way in which work is carried out by the Human Resource department. By designing an entirely new role and agenda that results in enriching the organization’s value to customers, investors and employees, HR can help in delivering organizational excellence. This can be carried out by helping line managers and senior mangers in moving planning from
the conference room to the market place and by becoming an expert in the way work is organized and executed. HR should be a representative of the employees and should help the organization in improving its capacity for change. HR will help the organizations in facing the competitive challenges such as globalization, profitability through growth, technology, intellectual capital, and other competitive challenges that the companies are facing while adjusting to uncontrollably challenging changes in business environment. The novel role of HR is to rapidly turn strategy into action; to manage processes intelligently and efficiently; to maximize employee contribution and commitment and to construct favorable conditions for flawless change.
2. Human Resource Should be a Strategy Partner: HR should also become a partner in strategy executions by propelling and directing serious discussions of how the company should be organized to carry out its strategy. Creating the conditions for this discussion involves four steps. First HR need to define an organizational architecture by identifying the company’s way of doing business. Second, HR must be held responsible
for conducting an organizational audit. Third, HR as a strategic partner needs to identify methods for restoring the parts of the organizational architecture that need it. Fourth and finally, HR must take stock of its own work and set clear priorities. In their new role as administrative experts they will need to shed their traditional image and still make sure all routine work for the company is done well.
3. HR Accountability Should be Fixed to Ensure Employee Commitment: HR must be held accountable for ensuring that employees feel committed to the organization and contribute fully. They must take responsibility for orienting and training line management about the importance of high employee morale and how to achieve it. The new HR should be the voice of employees in management discussions. The new role for HR might also involve suggesting that more teams be used on some projects or that employees be given more control over their own work schedules.
4. The New HR Must Become a Change Agent: The new HR must become a change agent, which is building the organization’s capacity to embrace and capitalize on change. Even though they are not primarily responsible for executing change it is the duty of the HR manager to make sure that the organization carries out the changes framed for implementation.
5. Improving the Quality of HR: The most important thing that managers can do to drive the new mandate for HR is to improve the quality of the HR staff itself. Senior executives must get beyond the stereotypes of HR professionals as incompetent support staff and unleash HR’s full potential.
6. Change in Employment Practices: The balance sheet of an organization shows human resource as an expense and not as a Capital. In the information age, it is perceived that the machines can do the work more efficiently than most people however; technology to work is dependent on people. The challenges for Employment Practice in the New Millennium will require that there should be strategic involvement of the people and labour-management partnerships as they both have to take organization ahead.
7. Benchmarking Tool Must be Mastered by HR Professionals: HR professionals must master benchmarking, which is a tool for continuous improvement- directing the human side associated with the strategic path adopted by the organization. Through this, HR department will start appreciating the changes happening within and outside the environment while expanding the knowledge about how to add value to decision making at the highest level of the organization.
8. Aligning Human Resources to Better Meet Strategic Objectives: Too often organizations craft their strategy in a vacuum. Some organizations don’t even include key people during strategy formulation resulting in lacunae between the actual problems and the solutions implemented- as critical inputs are not sought from those individuals who are supposed to implement the new strategies. A past CEO of Sony once said that organizations have access to the same technology and the same information. The difference between any two organizations is the “people”- the human resource. Empowering the workforce is an essential tool for aligning human resources with the achievement of corporate objectives. It is the duty of HR manager to hire talented human resource and to provide them with a positive environment where they will be able to utilize their skills and potentials and to create an environment in which these
individuals are comfortable taking risks.
9. Promote From Within and Invest in Employees: Promoting employees from within sends a powerful message that the organization’s employees are valued. New blood and fresh ideas often come from newcomers to the organization. To avoid stagnation of the firm, new ideas and approaches are critical. Yet to improve employee morale, promoting individuals from within the organization is essential. This communicates that the organization values their employees and invests in their human resources.
10. Review the Recruitment and Selection Process: A key element of human resource planning is ensuring that the supply of appropriate employees (with the right skill mix) is on board when needed. This requires a proactive approach whereby the organization anticipates its needs well in advance. It is important to identify the competencies being sought. That is, the criteria upon which selection decisions are to be made should be decided in advance. A firm must identify those skill sets required by employees to be successful. Charles O’Reilly suggests that companies should hire for attitude (perhaps even more so than technical skills). That is, the fit of the individual with the values of the organization and the culture of the firm should also be considered when selecting employees. This has been referred to as the person- organization fit.
It is no longer enough to simply consider the person’s fit (and technical skill set) with the job. Part of the employee’s fit with the organization should focus on the core values and beliefs of the organization. This will increase employees’ contributions to the overall success of the organization if they already embrace the core values of the organization prior to their selection
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Opinions are divided and are very varied when we talk about assessment assessment methodologies and the weight of assessment in a company.
Opinions are divided and are very varied when we talk about assessment assessment methodologies and the weight of assessment in a company.
We can certainly say that evaluation should be seen as a management tool that makes it possible to more objectively verify the potential of each employee in the company’s structure, how work methods can be improved (innovated or replaced) and if the set goals are effectively tangible and achievable goals.
But for this assessment to be reliable and give us the necessary indicators, it has to cover everyone within the framework and it has to be able to measure criteria such as: strategic vision, leadership, task delegation, initiative, conflict management, ability to negotiation, adapting to change and interpersonal skills and even teamwork and sharing the organizational culture. Awareness of this need unequivocally implies changing paradigms and leads us to a comprehensive assessment that goes far beyond indicators of production.
This implies that the assessment process itself has evolved and assessment methodologies today cannot be the same as yesterday. Never before has the term ‘Talent’ been so important in management and never before have the talents of organizations been so harassed. And the collaborator, the talent, only remains if it is valued.
It is increasingly important for the stability and growth of an organization to recognize the merit of workers who daily stand out for their dedication and ability to overcome challenges. The more recognized our talents are at home, the more we will respond to the growing motivation and willingness to embrace new opportunities.
This is how we are moving, and we have already verified it in recent decades, towards Assessment by Competences. So we have to:
Think of competency-based performance assessment as a powerful means of identifying employees’ potential, improving team performance and the quality of relationships between employees and superiors, as well as encouraging employees to take responsibility for the excellence of personal results and business.
GRAMIGNA, M.R. – Skills and Talent Management Model. São Paulo: Pearson Education, 2002
In the Competency Management model, evaluation is just a tool that helps the employee to discover for himself and for the organization, which competences he has and which ones he should develop or increase. This process should always be aligned with the organization’s core competencies. To implement an assessment model based on personal skills, it is essential that we are aware of the agility, mobility and innovation that organizations need to manage constant changes, threats and emerging opportunities.
It is these changes that lead the company itself to review many of its organizational strategies and also lead it to rethink what are the necessary or desirable skills in professionals who are part of the staff in the present and in the future.
Competency-based management represents a cultural shift towards a greater sense of responsibility and self-management by employees.
Therefore, it is clear that in many organizations there is a growing concern to implement an evaluation system that aims to determine who their employees are, identify integration, supervision, motivation, underutilization, training needs and other problems.
People with their attitudes, knowledge and skills are the main foundation of organizations!
The Performance Assessment by Competencies is the effective tool to effectively assess performance, reaching a greater level of depth that helps identify the causes of poor performance, and perhaps it is the most important means of providing objective indicators and criteria for each employee to maximize their professional performance. | https://arquiconsult.com/en/performance-assessment-ad-lever-for-personal-and-organizational-growth/ |
...1. What is Human Resource Development? It is a set of systematic and planned activities designed by an organization or HR department to provide its employees with the necessary skills to meet current and future job demands. · Human Resource Development (HRD) is the framework for helping employees develops their personal and organizational skills, knowledge and abilities. · It integrates the use of training, organization, and career development efforts to improve individual, group and organizational effectiveness. · Groups within organizations use HRD to initiate and manage change. · Also, HRD ensures a match between individual and organizational needs 2. Why implement Human Resource Development? Human Resource Development interventions may be necessary due to changes taking place as a result of the following: · Legislation/Policy changes – This puts new demands on the human resource in terms of skills or competencies. · Lack of basic skills – An assessment of the skill level of staff and make improvements to the skills and abilities. · Poor performance – Appraisal may reveal gaps in the performance of an individual · Customer requests –complaints of employees for providing poor service · New technology – the emergence of new technology may render the skills of current staff redundant and hence there is a human resource development need · New products/services – the emergence of new products/services requires that the human resource is adequately......
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...ASSESSING HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES ALIGNMENT: A CASE STUDY HERBERT G. HENEMAN III AND A N T H O N Y T. M I L A N O W S K I Research has established the link between HR practices and organizational performance, suggesting that the HR system has great strategic potential to drive organizational effectiveness. To capitalize on this potential, the organization must design and deliver HR practices that focus on necessary employee performance competencies, creating an HR system with vertical and horizontal alignment around those competencies. Doing this requires that the organization first assess how its HR practices are currently aligned and then develop ideas for improving HR practice that will be alignment enhancing. We call this diagnostic process Human Resource Alignment (HRA) assessment. We describe an HRA assessment process we developed and applied in a large public school district for the key job of teacher. The assessment was based on the district’s formal teacher performance competency model used, and was conducted by a group of human resources and instructional job experts from the district. These experts rated the degree of vertical and horizontal alignment and then developed suggestions for HR practice changes that would improve alignment. After describing the process and results, we present a series of lessons learned and directions for future research. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Keywords: strategic human resource management, human resource alignment......
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...According to Megginson et al (2003) human resource development is the study and practice of increasing the learning capacity of individuals, groups and organizations through the development and application of learning interventions for the purpose of optimizing human and organizational growth effectiveness. Employee resourcing is concerned with the range of methods and approaches used by employers in resourcing their organizations in such a way as to enable them to meet their key goals. It therefore involves staffing that is recruitment, selection, retension and dismissal, performance that is appraisal and management of performance administration that is policy development, procedural development, documentation and change management. Effective individual learning as critical if employees are to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to support the organization’s business objectives and delivery targets through employee resourcing. Human resource development contributes significantly in retaining and motivation employees such that they meet organizational goals. According to Armstrong (2002) recruitment flexibility can provide a significant competitive advantage for organizations. Recruiting flexible employee prepared for the future change and able to contribute rather than conform. Rather than aiming for rigid skills and ability profile, and gullible personalities, recruit people who are versatile and adoptable. This reflect a long term strategy, geared towards realizing......
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...Human resource development (HRD) can defined as a set of systematic and planned activities by an organization to expand human capital and talented workforce to reach their highest potential. This framework provided opportunities to develop their personal and organizational skills, knowledge and abilities to meet current and future job demands. (Stone, R, J., 2005 ) In the Malaysia, accordingly to Minister of Human Resources (MoHR), YB Datuk DR S. Subramaniam, “government always placed high priority on the capacity building of its human capital.” This is further demonstrating by introduction Human Capital Development as one of the tactic in strengthening Malaysian’s economic flexibility against an increasingly challenging in external environment. Besides that, at economic stimulus packages, government has been allocated RM650 million to encourage training and development via training programmes, on-the job training and job placement schemes to unemployed graduates, those currently employed as well as retrenched workers. Several training programmes which initiated by (MoHR) are Train and Place program, Train and Replace program and Train and Retain program. (Datuk DR S. Subramaniam, 2009) As shift into the next millennium, “brainpower” will become valuable than muscle, technical power, or even mechanical power. The era of brainpower industries is......
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...HR Strategy and Organizational Performance [Name of Writer] [Name of Institution] HR Strategy and Organizational Performance Introduction Human resource management is in the selection of policy and techniques related to human resource management agency. Taken together, these techniques and preferences are messages to employees, managers and interested persons abroad about the value of the agency placed on human resources. Unfortunately, international managers have had to adopt sensible policies in the field of organization for fixing the responsibility and cost control. First, employers continue to place administrative employees, Professional, scientific and technical through the civil service systems for important positions. The state of relatively high positions, security, payment and benefits that go with these positions are considered essential for productivity and long-term retention of these employees. This includes preventive education through programs for employee wellness and treatment plans by employee health. Second, employers have attempted to put caps on benefit costs and legal liability risks by increasing the use of working mechanisms secondary (such as employment contract or contingent) to pair the changing job titles. While the phenomenon of the working contingent recognized as characteristic of the modern workforce, the precise number of contingent workers are in dispute between staff and managers economists. Estimates ranging from 2 percent to 16......
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...HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT IN PUBLIC SERVICE Executive Summary “Maldives has a young civil service and high number of employees is employed at lower categories. These employees require technical skills in most of the policy implementing areas. However, as technical training opportunities are less in Maldives and to train employees abroad is expensive, there is a high demand for training and retraining for employees in Public Service.” Civil Service Commission’s Final Draft, Report and Strategy, 2010, pg14. In order to improve the effectiveness and the productivity of the civil service of the Maldives, it is important to do training needs analysis and cater effective training programs that can be given in the Maldives to increase their capability. The report is based on the Human Resource Development in public / civil service of the Maldives. The report outlines the analysis of training needs of the public service employees, planning and designing of training programs and their evaluations and a research on the role of UK government in Human Resource Development. In order to effectively complete this report, I have gathered information from various internet sites and the references of those sites have been shown under the heading Bibliography and References in page: 21. To complete task 1 and 2, I have interviewed civil service employees of different levels working in the AA. Atoll Hospital, AA. Atoll Education Centre, Secretariat of the North Ari Atoll and the......
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...HRD – GROUP ASSIGNMENT “Organizational Performance & Organizational Development are Two sides of the same Coin” Submitted to: Mr. Muhammad Ather Submitted by: Ahmed Fazeel Ghumman Muhammad Omer Sher Rana Asif Sardar Muhammad Salim Qaz INTRODUCTION Charles Perrow in his article “ The Short and Glorious History of Organizational Theory ” talks about forces of light and darkness. The forces of darkness have been represented by the “Mechanical school of organizational theory” with characteristics like Centralized authority, Clear lines of authority, Specialization and expertise, Marked division of labor, Rules and regulations, Clear separation of staff and line. And forces of light represented as “Human relations school”. and enumerates their characteristics as: Delegation of authority, Employee autonomy, Trust and openness, Concerns with the whole person and Interpersonal dynamics. Now this describes the difference between the organizational perspective of 20th century and 21st century, Forces of darkness represents the “Organization as Rationale Systems” and Forces of Light represents “Organizations as Open systems”. These two concepts of......
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...proved that human resource development has objectively become a major concern of both government and organizations in the today’s world of work. To analyze this phenomenon it is necessary to understand what Human Resource Development (HRD) truly is. HR commonly used meaning, is related to the business world referring to the individuals working in any business firm and coping with various personnel problems and issues related to recruiting, managing, developing, rewarding. HRD therefore is the development and improvement of the “framework for employers and employees which promotes a skilled and flexible labor market” . It is also important to understand that the basic principle of this “skilled and flexible labor market” is partnership and therefore is created to bring mutual advantages both for the employers and the employees. HRD protects also protect the rights of the sides making their interactions well-coordinated. 2. Human Resource Development today HRD has radically changed in the last years and nowadays it corresponds to the demands on the level of large business organizations and governmental institutions. Its impact on the functioning of any organization is being analyzed by the major experts. What is one of the best sides of HRD is that it has become a synthesis of many vital global aspects including occupational psychology, organizational behavior and theories of learning. Therefore HRD may be called an integrated formation with high performance through......
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...practical examples, identify and discuss the various strategies that can be used to improve individual behavior and performance. (30 marks). Human resource is the most important resource of the organization. As much as it is important to tap the most from it various strategies must be implemented to improve behavior and performance in order for the attainence of overall organizational goals. The focus on the strategies of improving individual behavior and performance is important in that if the strategies and appropriately implemented this will translate into improved organization performance. Performance appraisal A performance appraisal system must be well defined, corporately supported and monitored (Antony et, al 1996). It must also be widely communicated and focused towards achieving corporate objectives. Fischer, (1997), postulates that performance appraisal should be used as an employee development tool to identify areas of skill and ability deficiency to improve the focus for training and development, as the possession of appropriate skills and abilities are key elements in improving individual performance. Organization commitment on the development of the employee results in change in behavior of the employee as employee loyalty is increased. Maintenance of a good performance appraisal system enhances communication between line managers and staff thus also enhancing employee satisfaction, commitment and performance. Improved communication results in increased......
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...Organizational Development and Human Resources Jane Smith MGT/312 September 28, 2015 Xxx xxxx Organizational Development and Human Resources Human Resource functions relate to organizational development in a few ways. Human resource (HR) policies, practices, and procedures contribute to organizational structure. It is also said by HR experts that more specifically the three R’s, recruitment process, review system, and retention of talented faculty is vital to proficient organizational performance (Mishra, 2011). Overall, organizational development is greatly impacted by the HR practices of hiring, training, evaluation, and promotion of their employees. This helps to establish the desired organizational culture. First and foremost, the human resource techniques are integral to the leadership and development of an organization. The policies, practices, and procedures will also dictate the strategy behind the three R’s, recruitment, review, and retention. These managerial tasks can prove how effective a leader is and if they are capable of taking a company to the desired levels of success. When looking for new talent HR managers must assess that these individuals can appreciate the core values of the company. Moreover, the way these new recruits are trained and evaluated can better lead to attaining organizational goals (Kinicki and Fugate, 2014). Being able to retain capable associates can make or break a company. A positive organizational structure requires high......
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...HND DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS (MANAGEMENT & HUMAN RESOURCES) OFFERED BY INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY Meeting Business Needs through Training & Development Unit 23 Human Resources Development K.D.A.C ABEYGUNAWARDENA| KD/HNDBM/26/24 Business Management Batch 26 KANDY Submitted to Ms. L Sooriyabandara 15th March 2015 ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would have not finished this Assignment without the support of my family who has always been there for me whenever I need them, the encouragement they give to keep me going and their love to empower me that never fails all the time. Thank you. I would also like to thank my sister whose support has always been my source of strength and inspiration? Also to my friends who helped me in researching on different fields concerning this project. Thank you. I would also like to thank my teacher Ms. L Sooriyabandara who has given me a chance to prove that I can do things on my own. I thank her for challenging me to do this project. To you miss, I give you lots of thanks and respect. Thank you. Executive summary This training & development report is related to the Human Resource Development module. As this one of the important subject of human resource development all the relevant learning outcomes have been presented throughout this report. Mainly this report consists with 4 tasks of different aspects. From the first task, learning styles of the ASDA organization are been compared and contrasted......
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...6403 HRD Question review 2 week 4 Summary: * Executive team recognized that leadership development should be closely integrated with the corporate culture and that leadership should be developed at all levels * Distinguish five leadership principles * Leaders’ behaviour impacted both corporate culture and business performance * Progressive guidance, participants received extensive feedback (360 degree) Issues: * Inexperienced supervisors * Not effective and lacked the skills to manage people Week 4: Chapter 2: Developing Leaders for Competitive Advantage: The case of JetBlue, pp43-44. 1. Consider the advantages of having the senior executives actively involved in the development programme. Senior manger is defined as top macro-management in both support and leadership that leads to making an effective and clarity decision on learning and development on individual across all different levels. Meanwhile, senior management is believes that all member of organization should be led, rather than simply supported. Senior manager should be able to define the capability gaps, which ensuring that each individual learning and development needs are defined in corporate and business planning, while having appropriate funding (cost effective) and resource for learning and development. Ultimately, utilize the reward system to encourage staff to continuing learning in the workplace (Australian Government 2013). 2. How would you......
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...Managing Human Resources HRD, Performance and Reward Management The current Coles regional store manager is currently underperforming in the role the company has assigned for them. As this position of regional store manager plays a key role in Coles achieving its organisational objectives through inspiring, engaging and leading a team of staff to embrace and demonstrate the above values. (Nanverkis, Baird, Coffey, & Shields, 2014) Suggest that human resources should review an organisations strategic direction before selecting recruits. All positions should be reviewed and aligned with the corporate strategy to ensure corporate goals are achieved. Human resource management is one of the most essential departments of an organisations success. The overall goal of this management team is to make sure that the organisations relations with their employees are satisfied. This includes attracting, developing and maintaining a quality workforce and developing performance objectives (Schermerhorn, et al., 2014). The human resource department is investigating one of the current regional manager’s performances. Reports have indicated that the regional manager is underperforming. Underperforming employee’s need to be addressed and handled by the organisation. Detailing several issues will help realign the employee with the organisations goals. The issues being addressed will actively engage and offer recommendations in assisting the regional store manager to effectively......
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...Organization Development and Human Resources Allison Sanchez MGT/312 March30,2016 Professor- Dewayne Hendrix Organization Development and Human Resources The association between Organizational development and Human resources is both share many similar business functions. Both have a concern regarding people’s critical procedures due to having dissimilar areas of concentration inside of the organization. Human Resource management deals with short term issues, employees, salary, benefits, hiring, enforcing of company policies, contracts, work with management to develop long-term strategies for the growth of the organization. The H.R. management also reviews performance and conduct interviews that pertain to organizational development of implemented long term strategies. Examples such as what are the businesses goals and expectations of achieving them along with leadership, training and development. Business maintenance actually is what business management leans more towards in order to maintain and keep the organization running without issues and remain unblemished. The performance and renewals of a business is what organizational development aims for in order to observe and monitor the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the company’s executions. However, both departments do not always function and work collectively from time to time. Organizational behavior is the behavior which is expected of individuals within the organization. Since no two people will conduct......
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...Human resource development (HRD) generally means the "integrated use of training and development, organization development, and career development so the individuals, groups, can improve organizational effectiveness and achieve the best performing result. The organisational strategy of Novotel has anticipated its expectations of clients for environmental matters and corporate social responsibility. Human resource development requires the employees within the Novotel to obtain their skills during the training session to provide a better service to the clients to meet their expectations, which is closely connected with the organisational strategy. Different organisations have different goals and strategies, specific human resource development activities are planned and implemented by the organisations based on their strategies (Carole Tansley and Sue Newell, 2007). Strategic human resource development (SHRD) focuses on integrating HRD activities with organizational goals and values to develop core capabilities that enhance firm competitive advantage (Jia Wang, Holly M. Hutchins and Thomas N. Garavan, January 2009). It is necessary for us to consider the integration challenges of organisational strategy and human resource development. Even if the organisation planned very well, it still has some gaps for organisation to effectively integrating and matching their human resource development with organisational strategy, how to design the training program that can fix the real...... | https://www.termpaperwarehouse.com/essay-on/A-Close-Alignment-Of-Organization-Strategy/177504 |
Ann Arbor, Mich. — April 18
The skills of a company’s human resource professionals are more critical than ever, accounting for 20 percent of its business results, and are increasingly becoming part of an organization’s competitive advantage, according to a new study by The RBL Group and the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
The study is in cooperation with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), IAE School of Business, IMI, Tsinghua University, the Australian Human Resource Institute (AHRI) and National HRD Network.
To be prepared for the greater demands being placed on them, human resource professionals must define, assess and improve their performance against a set of specific competencies, according to the 2007 Human Resource Competency Study.
“It’s no longer enough for human resource professionals to just want to contribute to the bottom line — they need to know how to do this and have the ability to use what they know,” said Dave Ulrich, partner and co-founder of The RBL Group and a professor at the Ross School of Business. “A company’s intellectual capital, talent, intangibles and capabilities all derive from the competence and commitment of its human resource professionals.”
The Human Resource Competency Study has been conducted five times over the past 20 years, and it is the most comprehensive global empirical review of the HR profession.
More than 40,000 HR professionals and line management employees have participated in the studies since 1988.
The 2007 round of the Human Resource Competency Study involved more than 10,000 HR professionals and line management employees in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, China, Australia/Asia Pacific and India.
“When we first began the Human Resource Competency Study, we did not initially envision a data set that would include tens of thousands of participants spanning over 20 years,” said Wayne Brockbank, The RBL Group partner and director of the Center for Strategic HR Leadership at the Ross School of Business. “The sheer magnitude and scope of the research results is an extraordinarily valuable resource to HR professionals and departments around the world.
“The primary purpose of the Human Resource Competency Study is to provide empirical evidence on a global scale that helps HR departments and HR professionals add increasingly greater value as defined by customer and capital markets.”
To ensure they bring the most value to their businesses, human resource professionals must be adept in six major competency areas, according to the study.
The most critical human resource skill involves being a “credible activist” — part of which is performing “human resources with an attitude.”
“Human resource professionals must be both credible and active,” Ulrich said. “They need to be trusted, respected, admired, listened to but, above all, have a point of view and take a position. HR professionals who are credible but not activists are admired, but they do not have much impact. Those who are activists but not credible may have ideas, but they will not be listened to.”
Only 20 percent of human resource professionals are proficient in being “credible activists” for their businesses, Ulrich said.
“Sixty percent of HR professionals can master this crucial skill with the right training and awareness, while the remaining 20 percent may not have the right skills and/or personality to listen and take action,” he said.
In addition to being a “credible activist,” the five other major areas in which human resource professionals need to be proficient, according to the study, are:
- Culture and Change Steward. HR professionals recognize, articulate and help shape a company’s culture. “Culture involves a pattern of activities rather than a single event,” Ulrich said. “It starts with being clear about the expectations of external customers and then translates these expectations into internal employee and organizational behaviors.” In addition to managing change, successful HR professionals help make culture happen and develop disciplines to drive changes throughout the organization. “Through implementation of strategy, projects or initiatives, they help turn what is known into what is done,” Ulrich said.
- Talent Manager/Organization Designer. HR professionals master theory, research and practice in both talent management and organization design. “Talent management focuses on how individuals enter, move up, across or out of the organization,” Ulrich said. “Organization design focuses on the capabilities an organization has that are embedded in the structure, processes and policies that shape how the organization works.” HR is not just about talent or organization but about the two of them together. “Good talent without a supporting organization will not be sustained, and a good organization will not fully deliver without good talent,” Ulrich said.
- Strategy Architect. HR professionals need to have a vision for how the organization can win in the future and play an active part in the establishment of the overall strategy to deliver this vision. “This skill incorporates recognizing business trends and their impact on the business, being able to forecast potential obstacles to success and facilitating the process of gaining strategic clarity,” Ulrich said.
- Operational Executor. HR professionals execute the operational aspects of managing people and organizations such as drafting, adapting and implementing policies. HR professionals also ensure employees’ basic needs — including being paid, relocated, hired and trained — are efficiently delivered through technology, shared services and/or outsourcing.
- Business Ally. HR professionals contribute to the success of the business by knowing the social context or setting in which their companies operate. “They know how the business makes money — who their customers are and why they buy the company’s products or services. And they have a basic understanding of the functions of various corporate departments such as finance, marketing, R&D and engineering, so they can help the business make money,” Ulrich said.
The top four human resource competencies — credible activist, culture and change steward, talent manager/organizational designer and strategy architect — account for more than 75 percent of the success of a human resource professional, according to the study.
CEOs are more often looking to human resource professionals for knowledge about issues such as developing talent, changing the organization’s culture and moving into new markets, Ulrich said.
Human resource professionals are also more often involving external customers — the customers of the business — in the design of HR policies and linking them with customers’ expectations. | https://www.clomedia.com/2007/04/18/hr-skills-more-critical-than-ever-for-competitive-edge/ |
Our mission is to save our clients time and money. This is accomplished by implementing proven systems that control and/or mitigate the probability of loss directly related to regulatory exposures and by eliminating the need to retain a multitude of various professionals typically utilized to manage risk.
Here are some of the many roles we can fulfill for your company:
Risk Manager
Risk Managers use their education, training, and experience to make decisions that directly impact the strategic direction of a company. Their vision establishes long term objectives to meet a variety of corporate goals demonstrating exceptional leadership skills, efficient utilization of strategic alliances, and remain steadfast to their core values and well-disciplined reasoning. They lead a team of highly qualified professionals with individual expertise in many areas under the auspices of Risk Management.
An invaluable member of any business team, they must possess a comfortable knowledge of internal business practices and understand the intricacies of an organization’s trade or industry. The ability to identify deficiencies that could have a negative impact on a business is critical; providing solutions to mitigate these risks is quintessential.
Risk Managers are recognized leaders who are dynamic, proactive and decisive. They adapt quickly to ever changing business environments and initiate proactive policies that resonate positively throughout an organization. Their communication skills are finely tuned; they are effective leaders, excellent project managers, and have the ability to derive excellence from all areas of a company.
Human Resources Director
Human Resource Directors are the first line of defense in a company’s efforts to attract the most qualified applicants then retain those individuals to avoid negative trends associated with high turn-over. HR Directors are responsible for the development and implementation of recruiting, hiring, and retention systems that provide guidelines to managers with hiring authority.
Responsibilities often include employee handbooks, compensation and benefit plans, Workers Compensation reporting and record keeping, employee records, disciplinary action, company exposure and medical records, back ground checks, employment verification, selection of third party service providers for substance screening and/or pre-employment physicals, and serves as a liaison between senior management and labor.
Responsible for the direction and management of the organization’s employee benefits program, the Human Resource Director develops and administers plans through coordination with professional consultants and technical experts in the legal, medical, actuarial, accounting, financial, economics, labor relations, and communications disciplines. The benefits program administration includes designing and financing the plans, controlling costs, communicating benefits to employees, and keeping abreast of government legislation affecting employee benefit plans.
Employees are the most valuable asset to a successful organization; they also represent the greatest risk. Comprehensive studies are completed annually on loss information provided by companies throughout the United States. These independent analysis continually establish that less than 10% of all reported losses are related to engineering controls. That means that 90% of losses are the direct result of unsafe acts committed by employees. Another alarming trend is the short tenure of employees involved in catastrophic losses.
Trainer
Trainers are teachers with real world experience and unique delivery skills that allow them to communicate with employees regardless of education and/or comprehension barriers that may be encountered. Trainers can work in multiple environments and have the ability to develop training programs and select appropriate delivery systems that ensure comprehension of critical information.
Trainer’s use a mixture of training techniques that may include classroom lectures, workshops, videos, and in some cases one-on-one coaching. Trainers devote a lot of time studying and preparing for programs and manage their systems well to ensure a tangible return on the training investment.
Our trainers are versatile and provide a dynamic link between our customers and the professional development of their employee’s. Not only does this contribute to increased productivity and efficiency, but is a vital element in a healthy, thriving safety culture where the true value of your employees overall well-being is evident.
Safety Director
Safety Directors develop and coordinate loss control efforts for their organization. They possess a unique set of skills, based on experience, to design programs aimed at the reduction of loss related incidents commonly associated with occupational exposures & illnesses.
They provide reoccurring training, routine work environment inspections, skilled labor training, CPR & First Responder training, disaster preparedness, new hire orientation, Job hazard analysis, hazardous disposal procedures, and selection of appropriate PPE for worker protection.
Safety Directors must remain resolute and tireless in their pursuit of a safety system that communicates the company’s expectations of employee compliance while providing solutions to everyday challenges presented by technological advances in a multitude of work environments. | http://www.premierrm.com/ |
MaryFran Heinsch is a Research Analyst at Human Capital Institute. She brings a background in quantitative and qualitative methods in the Social Sciences to her role in providing research and analytical support at HCI. Prior to her current role, MaryFran has worked in non-profit, research, and higher education. She received her B.S. degree from Loyola University of Chicago and her M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago.
Content Featuring MaryFran Heinsch
How to Influence Strategic Decisions
Learn how High-Performing Organizations build talent strategy that drives the business strategy, best practices for communicating strategies and obtaining buy-in, and solutions for increasing your credibility and influence at work.
Talent Strategy Never Sleeps: Environmental Scanning and Planning for Market Change
Learn the elements of environment scanning, understand which factors present the greatest risk, and begin to adapt talent strategies to mitigate these risks.
Designing Continuous Feedback Systems for Improved Performance
Learn the feedback practices of high-performing organizations, identify resources for sharing and receiving of performance feedback, and evaluate your organization’s feedback processes to determine if they are meeting their goals.
Develop Your Organization’s People Analytics Capabilities
Discover how to assess analytics training needs for HR, identify the key metrics in each talent and business process that will drive the most actionable and valuable insights, and ensure sustained transparency and access to insights by developing cross-functional teams.
I Want You to Want Me: Retention Strategies in a Tight Labor Market
Understand the costs and impact of regrettable turnover, evaluate what retention strategies and tactics work for your organization and its different talent segments, identify metrics and indicators that point to flight risks, and develop plans to engage with your organization’s alumni.
Talent Pulse 5.2: Where has all the Talent Gone? Solutions for Closing Skills Gaps
Is it becoming more difficult for your organization to attract employees with the skills necessary to drive growth? Does it take more time to recruit talent and more training resources to build a workforce that meets the needs of the business? A growing number of organizations are working to meet the demand for new skills through a combination of private initiatives and public partnerships. Join us for this webcast to learn how organizations are meeting these challenges and explore strategies and solutions for Bridging the Skills Gap with Public and Private Partnerships.
Talent Pulse 5.1 - Strategic Workforce Planning 2020
Explore the current state of strategic workforce planning and trends in its development over the course of the last few years, while learning more about the most common and most underutilized steps in the strategic workforce planning process.
Talent Pulse 4.4 - Developing Sustainable Strategic HR
Explore the current and desired knowledge, skills, and abilities within the HR Function, how human capital professionals are developing themselves for future roles, and what organizational barriers hinder the HR Function from doing its best work.
Talent Pulse 4.3 - The Three I's in Effective Teams: Intention, Interaction, and Influence
Discover how to improve the performance of working groups by being intentional about team member composition, strengthening team leader skills and abilities, and offering development around interpersonal and task effectiveness.
Talent Pulse 4.2 - Making Referral Programs Count: Sourcing Quality Hires through Employee Networks
Examine how employers are designing, implementing, and measuring the success of their employee referral programs and uncover some of the right incentives that can motivate and encourage your best to refer the brightest. | http://pcdn3.hci.org/presenter/maryfran-heinsch |
- Describe the Balanced Scorecard method and how it can be applied to HR.
- Discuss what is meant by “human capital.”
- Understand why metrics are important to improving company performance.
- Consider how your human capital might be mapped on an HR Balanced Scorecard.
You may already be familiar with the Balanced Scorecard, a tool that helps managers measure what matters to a company. Developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton, the Balanced Scorecard helps managers define the performance categories that relate to the company’s strategy. The managers then translate those categories into metrics and track performance on those metrics. Besides traditional financial measures and quality measures, companies use employee performance measures to track their people’s knowledge, skills, and contribution to the company (Kaplan & Norton, 1996).
The employee performance aspects of Balanced Scorecards analyze employee capabilities, satisfaction, retention, and productivity. Companies also track whether employees are motivated (for example, the number of suggestions made and implemented by employees) and whether employee performance goals are aligned with company goals.
Applying the Balanced Scorecard Method to HR
Because the Balanced Scorecard focuses on the strategy and metrics of the business, Mark Huselid and his colleagues took the Balanced Scorecard concept a step further and developed the HR and Workforce Scorecard to provide framework specific to HR. According to Huselid, the Workforce Scorecard identifies and measures the behaviors, skills, mind-sets, and results required for the workforce to contribute to the company’s success. Specifically, as summarized in the figure, the Workforce Scorecard has four key sequential elements (Huselid, et. al., 2005):
- Workforce Mind-Set and Culture: First, does the workforce understand the strategy, embrace it, and does it have the culture needed to support strategy execution?
- Workforce Competencies: Second, does the workforce, especially in the strategically important or “A” positions, have the skills it needs to execute strategy? (“A” positions are those job categories most vital to the company’s success.)
- Leadership and Workforce Behaviors: Third, are the leadership team and workforce consistently behaving in a way that will lead to attaining the company’s key strategic objectives?
- Workforce Success: Fourth, has the workforce achieved the key strategic objectives for the business? If the organization can answer “yes” to the first three elements, then the answer should be yes here as well (Huselid, et. al., 2005).
Human Capital
Implementing the HR scorecard requires a change in perspective, from seeing people as a cost to seeing people as the company’s most important asset to be managed—human capital. According to the Society of Human Resource Management’s Research Quarterly, “A company’s human capital asset is the collective sum of the attributes, life experience, knowledge, inventiveness, energy and enthusiasm that its people choose to invest in their work (Weatherly, 2003).” As you can tell by the definition, such an asset is difficult to measure because it is intangible, and factors like “inventiveness” are subjective and open to interpretation. The challenge for managers, then, is to develop measurement systems that are more rigorous and provide a frame of reference. The metrics can range from activity-based (transactional) metrics to strategic ones. Transactional metrics are the easiest to measure and include counting the number of new people hired, fired, transferred, and promoted. The measures associated with these include the cost of each new hire, the length of time and cost associated with transferring an employee, and so forth. Typical ratios associated with transactional metrics include the training cost factor (total training cost divided by the employees trained) and training cost percentage (total training cost divided by operating expense) (Weatherly, 2003). But, these transactional measures don’t get at the strategic issues, namely, whether the right employees are being trained and whether they are remembering and using what they learned. Measuring training effectiveness requires not only devising metrics but actually changing the nature of the training.
The Bank of Montreal has taken this step. “What we’re trying to do at the Bank of Montreal is to build learning into what it is that people are doing,” said Jim Rush of the Bank of Montreal’s Institute for Learning. “The difficulty with training as we once conceived it is that you’re taken off your job, you’re taken out of context, you’re taken away from those things that you’re currently working on, and you go through some kind of training. And then you’ve got to come back and begin to apply that. Well, you walk back to that environment and it hasn’t changed. It’s not supportive or conducive to you behaving in a different kind of way, so you revert back to the way you were, very naturally.” To overcome this, the bank conducts training such that teams bring in specific tasks on which they are working, so that they learn by doing. This removes the gap between learning in one context and applying it in another. The bank then looks at performance indices directly related to the bottom line. “If we take an entire business unit through a program designed to help them learn how to increase the market share of a particular product, we can look at market share and see if it improved after the training,” Rush said (Rush, 1995).
Motorola has adopted a similar approach, using action learning in its Senior Executives Program. Action learning teams are assigned a specific project by Motorola’s CEO and are responsible for implementing the solutions they design. This approach not only educates the team members but also lets them implement the ideas, so they’re in a position to influence the organization. In this way, the training seamlessly supports Motorola’s goals.
As we can see in these examples, organizations need employees to apply the knowledge they have to activities that add value to the company. In planning and applying human capital measures, managers should use both retrospective (lagging) and prospective (leading) indicators. Lagging indicators are those that tell the company what it has accomplished (such as the Bank of Montreal’s documenting the effect that training had on a business unit’s performance). Leading indicators are forecasts that help an organization see where it is headed. Leading indicators include employee learning and growth indices (Weatherly, 2003).
The Payoff
Given the complexity of what we’ve just discussed, some managers may be inclined to ask, “Why bother doing all this?” Research by John Lingle and William Schiemann provides a clear answer: Companies that make a concerted effort to measure intangibles such as employee performance, innovation, and change in addition to measuring financial measures perform better. Lingle and Schiemann examined how executives measured six strategic performance areas: financial performance, operating efficiency, customer satisfaction, employee performance, innovation and change, and community/environment issues. To evaluate how carefully the measures were tracked, the researchers asked the executives, “How highly do you value the information in each strategic performance area?” and “Would you bet your job on the quality of the information on each of these areas?” The researchers found that the companies that paid the closest attention to the metrics and had the most credible information were the ones identified as industry leaders over the previous three years (74% of measurement-managed companies compared with 44% of others) and reported financial performance in the top one-third of their industry (83% compared with 52%).
The scorecard is vital because most organizations have much better control and accountability over their raw materials than they do over their workforce. For example, a retailer can quickly identify the source of a bad product, but the same retailer can’t identify a poor-quality manager whose negative attitude is poisoning morale and strategic execution (Becker & Huselid, 2006).
Applying the Balanced Scorecard Method to Your Human Capital
Let’s translate the HR scorecard to your own Balanced Scorecard of human capital. As a reminder, the idea behind the HR scorecard is that if developmental attention is given to each area, then the organization will be more likely to be successful. In this case, however, you use the scorecard to better understand why you may or may not be effective in your current work setting. Your scorecard will comprise four sets of answers and activities.
- What is your mind-set and values? Do you understand the organization’s strategy and embrace it, and do you know what to do in order to implement the strategy? If you answered “no” to either of these questions, then you should consider investing some time in learning about your firm’s strategy. For the second half of this question, you may need additional coursework or mentoring to understand what it takes to move the firm’s strategy forward.
- What are your work-related competencies? Do you have the skills and abilities to get your job done? If you have aspirations to key positions in the organization, do you have the skills and abilities for those higher roles?
- What are the leadership and workforce behaviors? If you are not currently in a leadership position, do you know how consistently your leaders are behaving with regard to the achievement of strategic objectives? If you are one of the leaders, are you behaving strategically?
- Your success? Can you tie your mind-set, values, competencies, and behaviors to the organization’s performance and success?
This simple scorecard assessment will help you understand why your human capital is helping the organization or needs additional development itself. With such an assessment in hand, you can act to help the firm succeed and identify priority areas for personal growth, learning, and development.
Key Takeaway
The Balanced Scorecard, when applied to HR, helps managers align all HR activities with the company’s strategic goals. Assigning metrics to the activities lets managers track progress on goals and ensure that they are working toward strategic objectives. It adds rigor and lets managers quickly identify gaps. Companies that measure intangibles such as employee performance, innovation, and change perform better financially than companies that don’t use such metrics. Rather than investing equally in training for all jobs, a company should invest disproportionately more in developing the people in the key “strategic” (“A”) jobs of the company on which the company’s success is most dependent.
Exercises
- Define the Balanced Scorecard method.
- List the elements of a Workforce Scorecard.
- Discuss how human capital can be managed like a strategic asset.
- Why is it important to align HR metrics with company strategy?
- What kind of metrics would be most useful for HR to track?
References
Becker, B., & Huselid, M. (2006). Strategic human resources management: Where do we go from here? Journal of Management, 32, 898–925.
Huselid, M., Becker, B., & Beatty, D. (2005). The workforce scorecard: Managing human capital to execute strategy. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Huselid, M.A., Beatty, R.W., & Becker, B.E (2005, December). “A players” or “A positions”? The strategic logic of workforce management. Harvard Business Review.
Kaplan, R., & Norton, D. (1996). The Balanced Scorecard. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Rush, J. (1995 July). Interview backgrounder for Fast Company.
Weatherly, L. (2003, March). Human capital—the elusive asset; measuring and managing human capital: A strategic imperative for HR. Research Quarterly, Society for Human Resource Management. Retrieved June 1, 2003, from http://www.shrm.org/research/quarterly/0301capital.pdf.
Weatherly, L. (2003). The value of people: The challenges and opportunities of human capital measurement and reporting. SHRM Research Quarterly, 3, 14–25. | https://jwu.pressbooks.pub/principlesofmanagement/chapter/16-8-tying-it-all-together-using-the-hr-balanced-scorecard-to-gauge-and-manage-human-capital-including-your-own/ |
The environment of human resource management has undergone drastic transformations worldwide with many organizations now operating in several work cultures such as work from home, in-office, or a combination of both. These crucial changes were made manageable by human resource managers who continued to help the firms to attain the organizational and individual goals during the tough times especially during the pandemic times.
The human resources department plays an essential role in contributing to the success of an organization and works tirelessly towards organizational growth and progress. Several skilled talent manager professionals in human resource management (HRM) are handling multiple responsibilities and work closely with the most valuable assets of a company, that is, employees.
While HR manager can attain adequate knowledge and learn all the nuances of HR management through various learning programs, it is essential to understand first how learning HR skills can help the HR professionally.
In this article, let us have a look at the few reasons to up skill as a human resource manager can be the best career choice for HR management
More and better understanding of people
Talent manager work with and for the people like form attracting, selecting, assessing, and hiring the right candidates to performance appraisal and promotions management, compensation management, learning and development, quality management, survey management, and compliance management, each task that they do directly or indirectly impacts the people of a company.
If the HR manager is someone who loves interacting with people or is willing to develop essential skills such as communication, problem-solving, conflict resolution, and collaborating with different departments, then choosing a career in the human resource management domain would be great for them. Human resource managers help encourage and motivate people, understand human psychology, build better relationships, and contribute to employee and organizational growth by making people feel safe, comfortable, happy, and satisfied with their jobs.
Knowledge and development
During their work tenure, HR manager meet and work with people of different backgrounds, thought processes, behavior, values, personalities, education, and work experience. In this process, they learn several skills from them. Moreover, as they work on defining job roles and responsibilities, they also develop a decent understanding of what technical and soft skills are required for what jobs.
Over time, as a human resource manager they can acquire and develop skills like corporate communication, administrative skills, industrial psychology, proactivity, advising, coaching, empathy, language skills, analytical and critical thinking, teamwork, and industry-relevant technical skills. These skills can not only be applied in talent management but is widely in-demand among employers of other industries, departments, or job roles too, making one qualified enough for exploring new job roles.
Sense of authority and power
HR skills play an essential role in Human resource manager’s job as they bring a fresh perspective into the organisation, ideate and form major company policies, know the organization’s priorities, and take major employment decisions which can change the image, brand value, and position of the company.
They closely work with the senior authorities of talent management and thus, their work and opinion make a valuable difference in the lives of the employees and the organization. Moreover, technological and automation changes can not completely replace human resource managers as people skills are something that demands an understanding of people and emotions over technicalities.
Thus, as one work towards impacting and improving the lives of employees and the identity of the organisation, as a human resource manager the job gives an essence of power, influence, and satisfaction that other profiles might not.
Multi-tasking and discretion
In several companies, every HR manager has one specific function such as training or compensation. But, in most companies, HR is responsible for many things at the same time. Human resource manager need to switch back and forth at a moment’s notice because they will deal with crises often.
HR management has to be able to step away from the affirmative action report. Talent manager aren’t required by law to keep the information confidential (although many employees think that they are). The talent management department is required to know when to share and when to keep the information confidential. | https://trendenews.com/top-reasons-to-up-skill-as-human-resource-manager/ |
The Bachelor of Science in Human Resources with a concentration in Training and Development prepares students to help improve the effectiveness of organizations by developing employees’ knowledge, skills, abilities, and performance. Employee development is almost universally recognized as a strategic tool for an organization's continuing growth, productivity, and ability to retain valuable employees. Therefore, the need for training and development specialists/professionals remains very relevant in 21st Century organizations. The BS in Human Resources with Concentration in Training and Development program at Limestone University is academically aligned with the Society for Human Resource Management. Therefore, the curriculum content is defined by guidelines provided by SHRM to enable students to develop the necessary competencies. As the program is academically aligned with SHRM, students in their final year will have eligibility to register for the SHRM-Certified Professional Examinations.
The Human Resources Training and Development degree program is available online. Online programs have the same content and curriculum as traditional on-campus programs. All coursework, including lectures, assignments, and exams, is available through the Canvas online learning system.
Online programs are asynchronous, which means there are no specific times you must be online. Professors and other instructors are available during virtual “office hours” for discussion. The programs are designed to allow you to focus on two courses in eight-week terms.
As an online student, you may be eligible to transfer credits from other accredited colleges. Learn more about our online program admission requirements.
Graduates of the BS in HR with a concentration in HR can work in positions such as Training and Development Administrator, Learning and Development Specialist, Talent Development Consultant, Learning and Development Manager, Training and Organizational Development Specialist to mention but a few. | https://www.limestone.edu/human-resources-training-and-development |
In recent years, much has been made of soft skills, or transferable skills, that allow workers to succeed in a variety of roles. As skills gaps widen and the demand for various skills changes, however, both workers and employers can benefit from a focus not only on transferable skills, but also on skills related to a worker’s core career focus.
The latter, known as adjacent skills, include both transferable and technical skills. Developed effectively, these skills can help workers adapt to the fast-paced change that characterizes today’s business world.
Defining “Adjacent Skills”
In 2017, researchers at McKinsey predicted that up to 14 percent of the global workforce, or 375 million workers, may require new skill sets by 2030, as automation and other advances make their existing skill sets obsolete.
“The changes in net occupational growth or decline imply that a very large number of people may need to shift occupational categories and learn new skills in the years ahead,” write James Manyika and fellow researchers at McKinsey. They predict that a change in the labor force on the scale of the Industrial Revolution is on its way, with corresponding impacts on workers and on demand for certain skills.
How will these workers transition into the roles that await them in the future? The answer lies in developing adjacent skills.
Adjacent skills are skills related to a skill or competency a worker already has. Often, they’re skills that are not targeted in job descriptions or in job-related education, but that play an essential role in enhancing a worker’s ability to fully understand their role and perform it more effectively.
Developing adjacent skills has become a way of life for some professionals, especially those actively engaged in making themselves indispensable to their employers. These workers “strengthen their knowledge of a secondary field, more often related to their core expertise or current industry,” writes Nilesh Gaikwad, country manager, India, at EDHEC Business School.
Common areas into which workers may pursue adjacent skills include technical skills that improve their understanding of their field, digital marketing, data analytics, and communication, writes Gaikwad.
Candidates for reskilling may be found within the organization or hired externally. When seeking to reskill existing team members, “look for workers who have been with the company for at least several years (because they know the organizational culture and overall business) and who also have ‘adjacent skills’ related to the ones you’re looking to develop and fill,” writes Sherman Morrison at New Hire Orientation.
To hire external candidates with an eye toward their adjacent skills, think of jobs in terms of the skills they require, rather than in terms of a job title.
“It’s important to remember that you may be hiring a candidate to fill a role, but roles are essentially a bag of skills. People with the skills necessary to perform a role’s duties may never have held that specific role or a position with that specific title,” says Lindsey Walsh, vice president of product at Gartner.
Lack of a title, however, does not equate to lack of skill. Nor does it equate to a lack of ability to develop a necessary skill by leveraging an already-developed adjacent skill.
Their Value in the Workforce
When it comes to reskilling, many people think of the most extreme examples of transitioning from one skill set to another. “We think about coal miners becoming coders or Elon Musk going from payment processing to space travel,” writes Khe Hy, the creator of RadReads.
For most workers, reskilling doesn’t mean a complete change in career. Rather, it means developing skills related to those they already have. Examples Hy gives include technical salespeople working on their writing skills or a financial analyst better understanding Python scripts.
As adjacent skills are developed, one skill may lead to another. Someone who knows Python, for instance, can more easily learn TensorFlow in order to improve their work with machine learning, or learn Django if they’re needed for front-end work, writes Tom Winter, cofounder and chief revenue officer at DevSkiller.
Developing adjacent skills allows workers to perform their current roles more effectively, and it also prepares them to accept promotions, make lateral moves within the same organization, or adapt to changes in the way their current job is done. Over time, a worker’s career may move in directions that no one anticipated or expected at the start — but that end up being precisely the direction the worker and company need in order to thrive.
Companies aren’t new to skills gaps. Rapid advances in technology have been causing such gaps for some time. Now, however, skills gaps are becoming common in non-technical areas, and they’re having a significant impact on organizations’ ability to manage fast-paced change and uncertainty, says Leah Johnson, vice president, advisory, at Gartner.
Business leaders see what’s coming. In a Gartner survey of 404 human resources leaders worldwide, 66 percent of CHROs and 86 percent of HR technology leaders said that addressing skills gaps and expanding employees’ skill sets were top priorities for 2020.
As the pandemic continues to create uncertainties, a focus on employee skill sets may become more valuable than ever.
How to Hire for Adjacent Skills
Most companies understand that the pace of global change drives a constant demand for updated and expanded skill sets. Understanding what’s changing in the workforce, however, doesn’t automatically arm companies with the knowledge of how to respond.
Hiring is one of the popular ways for companies to address skills gaps. About 66 percent of companies that faced a skills gap in the past five years resolved it by making a new hire, according to McKinsey researchers Sapana Agrawal, Aaron De Smet, Pawel Poplawski, and Angelika Reich.
Hiring managers and human resources professionals might have once gone directly to the source, asking team leaders or front-line workers what skills were needed on the job. Today, however, relying solely on the view of the skills needed today is likely to cause skills gaps to persist in the long run.
Instead, “you need a data-driven approach to understand evolving industry and competitive skill sets, skill profiles, and shifting workforce dynamics — especially given limited budgets for recruiting and training,” says Scott Engler, vice president, advisory, Gartner.
By leveraging available data, companies can better identify which skills are over- or underrepresented in its teams and within the organization as a whole. Data-driven approaches can also identify adjacent skills that fit employees for cross-training into new positions, writes Amy Schultz, senior director of product recruiting at LinkedIn.
People analytics, or using data to better understand the workforce, is already among the top trends for businesses, according to LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends 2020 report. In response to LinkedIn’s survey research, 85 percent of talent professionals said that people analytics are a top trend.
Using people analytics to identify skills gaps, assessing talent supply and demand, and predicting candidates’ success on the job is already taking place at some organizations. Over the next five years, all of these uses of data are expected to increase.
Using data to better understand skill profiles and patterns can help managers and HR leadership better leverage their team members’ adjacent skills. By understanding how skills relate, leaders can find, train, and retain better talent. | https://eightfold.ai/blog/adjacent-skills/ |
The Onboarding and Training Support Team is looking for the ideal candidate to join the team as an Onboarding Instructor. The Onboarding Instructor is responsible for the onboarding and site qualification of all trade employees supporting CanAtom projects at the Darlington and Pickering Nuclear Generating Station.
Key Responsibilities
Responsible for training project employees on a variety of Environmental Health and Safety related programs such as, Work at Heights, Hoisting and Rigging, Confined Space Entry, First Aid, Elevating Work Platform, Forklift Operation, etc.
Collaborates across the local organization and network to gather expectations, share best practices and coordinate program requirement
Create an environment conducive to learning for employees
Provide timely feedback to management and supervisors relating to employee competency
Establish measurable goals and levels of competency of each trainee
Provide trainees with timely and relevant feedback, both positive and constructive
Document all training in accordance with established legislative standards
Promotes a safety culture that supports continuous improvement in the EHS management system through active communication, participation and development of skills. Fosters a positive safety culture in which trainees’ value safety
Additional duties as assigned.
Required Knowledge & Skills
A working knowledge of Provincial OHS Legislation
Minimum 5 years of experience in Health and Safety and training/facilitating within the construction industry
Relevant Post-Secondary education or equivalent experience in the Health and Safety field
Demonstrated Leadership abilities with strong interpersonal and communication skills
A designation such as NCSO would be considered an asset
Train the Trainer Qualifications in programs such as Work at Heights, Confined Space Entry. WHMIS, First Aid, etc. | https://www.wowjobs.ca/posting/F14rk04xdQ2DciKtDzp-JBAEsWjr0psk6vcZjq1QuDhLK41tH9UlTg |
At D2L, we’re on a mission to transform the way the world learns. And we’re doing it using technology!
We’re not in an industry where we’re afforded the luxury of taking our time (is anyone, really?). In an economy and industry that is disruptive and ever changing, our organization requires leaders and individual contributors who are not only ready to change, but demonstrate an urgency to innovate, to fail fast to learn fast and to do their part to inspire a culture of relentless improvement.
- Are we explicitly challenging the status quo (and are we making it safe for others to do so?)?
- Are we willing (when safe and appropriate) to allow something to be 80% done so that we can gather feedback, iterate and make it even better? Or do we suffer analysis and feedback paralysis?
- Are we seizing the opportunities as they are presented to us to do things as they have never been done? Or do we revert back to- but this is how we’ve always done it?
Even for those who don’t like change, it’s hard to challenge the belief that, it is truly in times of change, growth and innovation- those times that we are truly tested- when the potential for the greatest personal and organizational growth exists.
We want (and need) a culture where everyone feels it’s their place to make D2L better by virtue of seeing and seizing opportunities. We want (and need) for people to feel safe to try and fail in order for us to learn and move on. We don’t want decision making to be laborious and too time consuming or else opportunities to grow and innovate might pass us by. We want (and need) to hear more “but why have we always done it that ways?” and want (and need) more people to be willing to truly consider that question.
Are you reading between the lines yet? Is it obvious what underpins this particular leadership competency? It’s trust! Low trust causes friction and withholding and fear. It SLOWS everything down. High trust facilitates speed and safety and results. Trust is not soft. It is an “actionable asset” that we can create. (Our 2017 LEAD group is reading The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey this year as part of our book club. It might be of interest to you too!).
And how can we offer up a trusting and safe environment for our leaders and individual contributors to truly be Better, Smarter, Faster? It is the culmination of our behavior at every micro moment.
- Someone screwed up, how did you react?
- You said you’d have someone’s back, did you follow through?
- YOU screwed up, did you own it?
- Your employee comes to you with an ‘out of the box’ idea, how quickly did you slam it?
- Your leader asks for ideas and suggestions on how to improve the team, do you respond? Do you complain about the team behind her back?
Every micro moment allows us an opportunity to build up the foundation that is needed for people to feel safe enough to try, to move forward, to fail.
We see Better, Smarter, Faster when an individual contributor proactively suggests a change or improvement on our PIE (Product Idea Exchange) or CAKE (Company Actions for Killer Execution) platforms.
We see Better, Smarter, Faster when a formal leader explicitly supports and challenges her team to take risks, to improve processes and to make suggestions. Extra bonus points when said leader does so by always connecting back to purpose. (Taking risks, getting better, smarter, faster, and being willing to fail fast to learn fast are all that much more enticing when I am deeply connected to the bigger why).
We see Better, Smarter, Faster when a team gathers to do a retro after something goes wrong. The retro looks back at what happened in a non-blaming way so that we can quickly look forward to learning and growing and doing better next time.
So, let’s work on it…..
- Go into your calendar right now. Book a once a quarter “Better, Smarter, Faster” session. Piggy backing off or our Be Boundaryless competency, design the session to have opportunities for both team members as well as external stakeholders to safely brainstorm/challenge/consider new and creative ways to work as well.
- Take some time to review ‘standard’ work practices in your department and ask yourself – “Is there a better, smarter, faster way to do this?” Consider Wal-Mart’s method ETDT: “Eliminate the Dumb Things.” Create formalized opportunities to challenge the status quo.
- Celebrate the learning/process. Everyone likes a good celebration/opportunity for recognition. If we only ever celebrate when things go perfectly right or the final outcome, the road can seem daunting. Why even start? Why even try? And there’s nothing that squashes a culture’s ability to inspire relentless improvement faster than people getting raked through the coals when they try and “fail.” We ask our employees to consider instead, to contributing to the “Kudos” and “Lessons Learned” Slack channels. Lead by Example by spending an equal amount of time discussing and celebrating the learning and trying.
- Have an idea to improve something around here, don’t be shy! We encourage our employees to share their suggestions on our PIE or CAKE discussion boards. Do your employees know where to share their suggestions for relentless improvement?
Most people aren’t comfortable with what is perceived to be ‘failure.’ That discomfort will only be amplified if it is accompanied by intensely negative responses to even trying. We MUST have a space were Better, Smarter, Faster is the way of the world here at D2L. Humbly consider your part in the bigger safety/trust picture and give some of the above suggestions a try (and yes, I believe that the 4 suggestions are accessible to both people leaders and individual contributors alike…..nothing wrong with an individual contributor making some of the above suggestions to his/her leader!). Good luck!
**We have set Better, Smarter, Faster as one of the necessary leadership competencies here at D2L. We are humble enough to know that simple saying something doesn’t make it so. We recognize and celebrate those who do it well. We tell the stories of what good looks like. We are embedding the competencies into our onboarding programs. You’ll see them in our job descriptions. We’re developing learning opportunities to allow these capabilities to be strengthened in our formal and informal leaders alike. We continue to work at holding each other accountable by increasing our opportunities to provide each other regular and in the moment feedback. Sometimes we succeed and some days…..Meh….Sometimes this stuff is easy. Sometimes, it requires a bit more bravery. But it’s worth it all of the time.***
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Support accommodations and differentiation? Build custom learning paths? Conditionally release materials? Create accessible content? Brightspace can do that!
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Communicate learning objectives to students? Maximize use of rubrics? Track student progress against expectations? Brightspace can do that! | https://www.d2l.com/careers/blog/better-smarter-faster/ |
To assure the employees that they can “voice their ethical concerns up the chain of command without fear of retaliation,” human should adopt an open-door policy. The employees should know that they have avenues for their issues to be addressed. They shouldn’t feel as though they have no one to turn to in the event they have certain ethical issues. The policy may involve introducing avenues for complains, suggestions, questions, safety concerns, feedback, concerns with management and reporting problems with other workers. The policy should be designed with the intention of creating an environment where employees feel they can express any concern without fear.
The HR managers should also adopt an open line of communication with employees. They should as well attend regular training sessions to remain current and abreast of various policies which govern ethical behaviors in the organization. Employers will benefit from this strategy because they will hear about issues before they escalate. You would rather hear them from employees than from a lawyer. Wrong approaches such as ignoring employees or confronting them without all facts may worsen the situation and lead to legal issues. | https://free.essay-samples.com/decision-making-and-unions/ |
Feedback on the UK-Canada Immersive Exchange
The Canada Council engaged Innovative Research Group to gather feedback on the UK-Canada Immersive Exchange program.
Research goal
The objectives of this research were to gather feedback from participants and partners on the extent to which the program achieved its objectives, understand the value, relevance, and satisfaction with specific elements of the program, and identify areas of improvement.
Methods
Innovative conducted focus groups and interviews with 18 of the 24 program participants and interviews with program co-leads and representatives from program partners.
Outcomes
Innovative Research Group concluded that:
- The program successfully tested an innovative model to help advance the future of immersive storytelling.
- Program participants found value in the program to varying degrees.
- Phase I was overly focused on the business aspects of a co-production instead of the creative process.
- Some participants had trouble understanding the Phase 2 application process and struggled with the competitive aspects of this phase.
Suggestions for improvement included:
- Focus on setting clear expectations upfront.
- Design activities in Phase I to increase participant engagement.
- Structure the program to foster an environment of collaboration among all participants.
- Become the steward of an international community of creatives and producers in the immersive space
The Canada Council is integrating the findings from this research to guide its support for potential future initiatives.
Questions?
Please contact the Research, Measurement and Data Analytics Section at [email protected]. | https://canadacouncil.ca/research/research-library/2022/12/feedback-on-the-uk-canada-immersive-exchange |
Safety briefings are conducted in an organization to increase awareness of safety concerns associated with duties and responsibilities. According to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, safety briefings gather staff insight and create an environment that integrates safety into the daily work routine. Over the course of time, conducting regular safety briefings can develop a culture of safety within an organization.
IHI suggests that safety briefings must be nonpunitive and collect data that refer exclusively to safety concerns. Moreover, nonpunitive briefings allow the staff to discuss concerns in an open and nonjudgmental environment. Briefings are generally short and used to collect feedback from the staff. They also show that workplace safety is a priority and put safety in the forefront of workers' minds, notes workplace consultant Peter Mitchell.
According to IHI, briefings are an effective tool used to facilitate discussion about safety. More importantly, they can be designed for use by staff members on every shift without the assistance of management or a facilitator. Staff must be able to understand the briefing process easily and use the tool without help. Although safety briefings started in aviation and other industries, the tool has started expanding to include health care environments such as long-term care facilities and home-based health care programs. | https://www.reference.com/business-finance/conduct-safety-briefings-e68962479b8930c9 |
Beware of “Askholes” & Others Who Won’t Listen
Understandably, people who ask for advice may not always follow it. But how they listen and respond makes a difference in the outcome and its impact on others. This includes frustrating encounters with “askholes” — people who constantly ask for your advice, yet ALWAYS do the complete opposite of what you told them to do” [Urban Dictionary] — and those who ask for advice only to dismiss it.
Ignoring valuable suggestions from reliable sources can negatively affect the workplace. Read on to learn more.
Example #1. When the consultant voice doesn’t matter
I was called in to consult with an IT organization to facilitate the initial sessions on a massive change and reorganization. People were not being forced to join the new organization — they came by choice and interview. During the first session, an employee who worked in network security stood up and said “I don’t support any of this and will work to stop it.” I was able to address the employee’s disruption temporarily and he sat down.When I later met with the IT leader to discuss this serious issue, he made light of it saying, “People say things like that during changes. It’s no big deal.” I told him it IS a big deal as the network security specialist accepted this job in the new organization by choice and said he will do everything to stop the change. Still the leader seemed unmoved. Finally I said, “I am telling you that you better check into what he is doing to the network. This is serious!!” He did and found out that the network security specialist was taking steps to subvert it.When you ask a trusted consultant for an opinion, at least check out what they are saying. This wasn’t the first leader to initially dismiss my concerns only to find out the situation was very serious.
Example #2. When the employee voice doesn’t matter
A service-based organization implemented system changes that frustrated both front-line employees and customers. Fortunately, loyal customers were patient and empathetic as staff struggled to adapt. Several customers also politely shared their concerns with employees to be communicated upward. But staff feedback was routinely ignored to the point that employees resorted to asking customers to complain directly to management as senior leaders were more likely to respond to customer complaints.
As a result, customers were made aware of management not listening to employee feedback which lead customers to rethink their perceptions of how the organization was run. It’s why I remind leaders, “The way your employees feel is the way your customers will feel, and if your employees don’t feel valued, neither will your customers.”
How’s your willingness to listen?
I realize not all suggestions and advice should be heeded. But ignoring outright the input of peoples’ experience and expertise is not only frustrating to those with something to say, it can lead to their disengaging with you.
Asking for advice is only half the battle. How you respond puts your professional credibility and workplace engagement at risk. | http://www.qualityservicemarketing.com/2020/04/customer-service/beware-of-askholes-others-who-wont-listen/ |
There is no definitive answer to this question as it depends on a number of factors, including the genre of the novel, the purpose of the chapter, and the author’s personal preferences. However, a good rule of thumb is to divide a novel into approximately twenty-four chapters, or approximately one quarter of the book.
Character Development?
Character development is the process of developing a character’s personality and defining their unique set of values, goals, and motivations. In fiction, this process often includes creating a character’s backstory, exploring their relationships with other characters, and developing their abilities and skills.
Character development is an essential part of writing effective fiction. It allows readers to connect with and sympathize with characters, and to understand their motives and behavior. It also helps readers to sympathize with characters who are in difficult situations, and to identify with their goals and desires.
Ultimately, character development is what makes a story compelling and engaging. It allows readers to invest themselves in the characters, and to follow their journey with interest.
The Elements of Storytelling?
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the most technically gifted person when it comes to writing. That’s why, when I was asked to review The Elements of Storytelling by StoryBots, I was so excited. I love learning new things, and I love finding resources that can help me improve my writing skills.
The book is broken down into four sections: Characters, Plot, Structure, and Themes. Each section contains a wealth of information, and it’s all easily accessible thanks to accompanying online resources.
Tips for Writing a Great Chapter?
Writing a great chapter is all about creating a strong beginning, middle, and end. Here are some tips to help you achieve success:
- Start with a strong opening. A strong opening will grab the reader’s attention and set the tone for the chapter. Be sure to introduce your characters, set the scene, and reveal key plot points.
- Keep the pace moving. A chapter that plods along at a slow pace will lose readers. Keep the action moving and the dialogue flowing to keep readers engaged.
- Use strong dialogue. Dialogue is a key tool for creating character and setting. Use it to reveal character, to build tension and suspense, and to provide a layer of realism.
- Keep the plot moving. Without a
Plotting Tips for Novels?
Plotting Tips for Novels
- Start with the end in mind.
This is perhaps the most important rule of all when it comes to plotting a novel. You need to have a clear idea of where you want the story to go, and then work backwards from there. This will help you to keep your story on track and make sure that it unfolds in a satisfying way.
- Don’t be afraid to change things up.
If you find yourself getting bogged down in the same old plotline, it’s time to shake things up a bit. Try switching up the main characters, the location, or the timeframe. This will help to keep your story fresh and intriguing.
- Build your characters carefully.
How to Structure a Novel?
If you’re thinking of writing a novel, you have a lot of questions to answer. What format should it be in? How many chapters should it have? How should the plot be structured?
Here are some tips to help you structure your novel:
- Know your genre.
If you’re writing a romance novel, for example, you might want to start with the inciting incident, which is the moment that sets off the story’s drama. Once you know your genre, you can structure your novel accordingly.
- Plan your plot. | https://www.gubok.com/how-long-should-a-chapter-be-in-a-novel/ |
Also available from:
Available from:
Apr 02, 2019 | ISBN 9780735218611
Apr 10, 2018 | ISBN 9780735218628
Apr 10, 2018 | ISBN 9780525590804
454 Minutes
Winner of the Colorado Book Award for Fiction “All the feels of a This Is Us episode.” —BooklistWhen Murray Blaire invites his three grown children to his New Hampshire farm for a few days, he makes it clear he expects them to keep things pleasant. The rest of his agenda–using Ruth and George to convince their younger sister, Lizzie, to break up with her much older boyfriend–that he chooses to keep private. But Ruth and George arrive bickering, with old scores to settle. And, in a classic Blaire move, Lizzie derails everything when she turns up late, cradling a damaged family cookbook, and talking about possible criminal charges against her.This is not the first time the Blaire family has been thrown into chaos. In fact, that cookbook, an old edition of Fannie Farmer, is the last remaining artifact from a time when they were a family of six, not four, with a father running for Congress and a mother building a private life of her own. The now-obscured notes written in its pages provide tantalizing clues to their mother’s ambitions and the mysterious choices she once made, choices her children have always sought without success to understand. Until this weekend.As the Blaire siblings piece together their mother’s story, they come to realize not just what they’ve lost, but how they can find their way back to each other. In this way, celebrated author Elisabeth Hyde reminds readers that family survival isn’t about simply setting aside old rivalries, but preserving the love that’s written between the lines.
Elisabeth Hyde is the author of five critically acclaimed novels, most recently In the Heart of The Canyon, a New York Times Editor’s Choice and a People magazine Great Read. Her fourth novel, The Abortionist’s Daughter, became a bestseller in… More about Elisabeth Hyde
Praise for Go Ask Fannie“Writing in a style both affecting and realistic, Hyde gives readers a family that could mirror their own, including the characters, the conversations, and the treasured family keepsake. With all the feels of a This Is Us episode, Hyde’s latest novel will delight readers.”—Booklist“Hyde’s insightful and engaging novel is highly recommended, especially for readers who enjoy family sagas by Sue Miller and Anne Tyler.”—BookPage“It’s a must-read for anyone who loves a good family drama—especially those with siblings.”—HelloGiggles“Hyde, whose best-known novel is The Abortionist’s Daughter, is here an accomplished, assured and painstaking archaeologist of a multilayered family history, of its secrets, vulnerabilities and regrets. A richly rewarding read.”—Sunday Times (UK) “In this heartfelt story, family conflict and love intertwine.”—The Tennessean “Hyde always produces character-driven books that ooze authenticity.”—5280“The writing is superb and compelling… Excellent plotting and a story which just seems to happen without effort.”—BookBag UK“A book full of huge-hearted mistake makers that you’ll want to call your own—Go Ask Fannie is a rousing reminder that the only way to truly forgive another person is to first forgive yourself.”—Courtney Maum, author of Touch and I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You“Wonderful characters, a gorgeous sense of time and place, and elegant storytelling make Go Ask Fannie an utter delight. The members of this loving, raging, totally compelling family may not like one another all the time, but I adored them all from the first page. Elisabeth Hyde has written a funny, joyous novel, heartbreaking and heartwarming all at once and in the very best ways.”—Laurie Frankel, author of This is How It Always Is “What does it mean to be a family? What are the secrets we hide? In this poignant, often funny, yet serious novel, Elisabeth Hyde mines the mysteries and paradoxes of our most intimate connections. How we hurt, disappoint, and lie to one another, and how despite it all we are inextricably joined. In the end Elisabeth Hyde has served us up a recipe for love, one that the reader will feast on for a long time.”—Mary Morris, author of The Jazz PalaceMore Praise for Elisabeth Hyde“Elisabeth Hyde is a remarkably lucid and authoritative novelist.”—John Irving“[Hyde’s] prose is vigorous and natural, her perception subtle, her voice and those of her characters all-American.”—New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)“Like Anne Tyler, Hyde captures the quirky, heartbreaking core of a character and puts it on the page with shining prose…in a novel full of originality and sparkle.”—Publishers Weekly
Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network
Stay in Touch | https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/564921/go-ask-fannie-by-elisabeth-hyde/ |
Are you a literary lover looking to get some insight from one of the greats? Well, look no further than Joyce Carol Oates: she’s an undisputed grandmaster of fiction and her MasterClass will help turn your dreams of writing success into a reality. Follow us on this journey as we take a deep dive into the depths of Joyce Carol Oates’ fully immersive MasterClass experience.
Introduction to Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates is a celebrated author who has written many critically acclaimed books and short stories. She is renowned for her exploration of the darker side of human nature, which often results in an intense reading experience. Joyce has lived a rich and interesting life that’s been filled with fascinating tales and unexpected twists—all of which are revealed in her remarkable MasterClass.
During her MasterClass, Joyce talks about why she writes, how to use literature to educate and entertain people, and how to craft powerful narratives that capture readers’ imaginations. Participants benefit from her practical advice on publishing your work and collaborating successfully with different personalities. Joyce also provides insight into the creative process behind oft-discussed topics such as:
- Race
- Poverty
- Gender roles
- Love/romance
- Horror/the supernatural
- Crime/warring culture
Overview of the Joyce Carol Oates MasterClass
Joyce Carol Oates’s MasterClass is an intensive writing course focused on improving your craft and progressing from wherever you are today as a writer. The course consists of 21 video lessons, with each lesson lasting between 8-32 minutes, depending on the subject. It covers topics such as inspiring creativity, writing bestsellers, plotting a novel, and enhancing your dialogue. Oates also includes exercises for honing certain skills and provides comprehensive feedback for all written pieces. In addition to the main portion of the class, there are bonus materials available in their community page where students can interact with each other and discuss specific topics related to Joyce’s lessons.
The overall structure of this course makes it suitable for all levels of writers alike. Whether you’re just starting out or you have been writing for some time, this class can provide helpful strategies and knowledge that can help shape your work into something truly great. Additionally, there is an emphasis throughout the course on discipline and commitment – two key ingredients needed to succeed in any craft – which makes this course ideal for those who have been struggling to make progress in their writing endeavors. Students will also gain insight into Joyce’s own thoughts on her literary process and gain a better understanding of how she creates her mesmerizing stories.
Benefits of the Joyce Carol Oates MasterClass
The Joyce Carol Oates MasterClass provides individuals with an opportunity to learn how to write compelling stories and novels from a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. During the MasterClass, participants will get insight into Joyce’s experience as a writer and also have the ability to take part in seven independent chapters. Each of these chapters focuses on a particular aspect of fiction writing, such as creating vivid characters, developing vivid settings, creating compelling first lines and much more.
With her unique and detailed approach, Joyce helps individuals learn how to write from their own perspectives while concentrating on their individual writing goals. During the class, she will provide personalized feedback on yourself and your writing peers’ works. Through this feedback you will be able to answer any question or address issues you may have during the class. Additionally, each participant will receive access to exclusive online resources including ebook editions of two favorite titles of hers; Angel Of The Block and My Sister Gray Baby.
Furthermore, students will also gain access to multiple video lessons touching further upon topics such as plotting suspenseful stories and crafting realistic dialogue exchanges between characters. In addition they can ask Joyce questions directly through a Q&A session exclusively for her MasterClass members Each month she holds Live Office Hours where she interacts one-on-one with students through a private online gathering focusing on their individual projects.
The benefits offered in the Joyce Carol Oates MasterClass are invaluable for those looking to hone their craft or learn about fiction writing from one of today’s most prolific novelists. With focused instruction from Joyce carried out through video lessons, Live Office Hours and curated content from other featured writers it offers an unparalleled experience for anyone who wants to improve their creative development or reach new heights in storytelling power!
Course Breakdown
Joyce Carol Oates’s MasterClass provides an exciting new way to learn about the craft of writing. Through a series of video lessons and accompanying activities, students will receive instruction on every aspect of the creative process, from conceptualizing stories and characters to constructing narratives, polishing prose, and publishing their work. The course is broken into different sections, each addressing a unique element of writing.
Lessons: In total, there are 21 lesson videos that explain themes and techniques such as jump-starting creativity, developing characters and themes, exploring dialogue development tools and genre constructions. The course also comes with additional resources including an online community forum where students can discuss ideas with each other.
Projects: Joyce guides students through three hands-on projects that they complete while taking the class – a short story, a monologue/scene exercise in dialogues Writing A final project to share with her so she can provide feedback. Projects help students apply what they have learned throughout the course.
Students MasterClass Library Access: Students get exclusive access to Joyce’s personal library full of virtual workshops exploring topics like on social media for writers or getting creative in unexpected places. All classes come with pre-recorded Q&A sessions., so no one needs to miss out on any exclusive insights from the teacher themselves!
Assignments & Exercises: As part of the curriculum, Joyce provides weekly assignments challenging students to hone their skills in storytelling – such as sequences creation exercises & surprise prompts for personal stories development–plus practical tasks like researching agents/publishers or how use social media as an author–allowing them to tackle real world situations while getting direct feedback on their work from Joyce herself!
Sample Lessons
If you’re considering enrolling in Joyce Carol Oates’s MasterClass on the art of fiction, it can be helpful to take a look at some of the sample lessons that are available. This way, it is easy to get an idea of what the course covers and what topics are addressed throughout. All lesson topics are detailed on the instructor page with lesson titles, descriptions and assignments included. Here’s a look at what you can expect to find when taking this engaging course:
- Lesson 1: Introduction – In this introductory class, students will learn about Oates’ approach to writing creative fiction, covering her experience as both an author and professor. She shares her insights into writing basics like character development and dialogue as well as tips for editing shape your story before submitting it for publication or self-publishing online.
- Lesson 8: Character Development – Students will delve into creating complex characters with rich backstories that bring life to a story while also understanding how they drive plot movement forward. During this lesson, Oates will also provide guidance on finding balance when creating characters with dimensions beyond just physical attributes so that readers really connect with them throughout the book.
- Lesson 14: Editing – This class focuses not only on identifying edges during editing but also developing techniques for improving those weaknesses noted in the writing process. It offers strategies for editing individual works as well as revisions for multiple pieces of work over time based on developing craftsmanship during the course.
By gaining access to these preview lessons from Joyce Carol Oates’s MasterClass in Fiction Writing, potential students can get an idea of what to expect from every lesson within this valuable course before signing up!
Pros and Cons of the Joyce Carol Oates MasterClass
The Joyce Carol Oates MasterClass is an interactive, online writing workshop designed to help participants advance their creative writing abilities. Led by renowned author Joyce Carol Oates, the course offers experienced and novice writers alike the ability to learn from and interact with one of the most prolific contemporary fiction authors of the twentieth century. In this review, we will explore both the pros and cons of taking the Joyce Carol Oates MasterClass.
Pros:
- From an experienced and technically proficient lecturing staff to easily accessible class materials, the Joyce Carol Oates MasterClass provides invaluable instruction for many aspects of creative writing.
- Participants have access to over forty lectures by Oates herself, a detailed course workbook full of writing prompts, instructional tools such as critiques and feedback on assignments directly from Oates, as well as support from other participants in the course via discussion boards.
Cons:
- The cost of registering for the Joyce Carol Oates MasterClass may be prohibitively expensive for those on a tight budget or unable to commit significant amounts of time during six months allotted time duration given for completion of course materials.
- Additionally, while discussion boards offer support opportunities among participants it may not provide one-on-one access with instructors like some traditional classroom formats do. Thus it may be necessary for those seeking more personalized feedback or advice to seek out additional resources beyond what is offered in this masterClass format.
Final Thoughts
Overall, our assessment of Joyce Carol Oates’ MasterClass is that it is well worth the cost. Professors are engaging, the content is comprehensive and informative, and many insights were made in the discourse between tutor and student. We also appreciate Oates’ openness with sharing her personal professional experiences and how succeeding in creative writing can be achieved through hard work and dedication.
Joyce Carol Oates’s MasterClass provides an invaluable resource for any aspiring writer. Her scrupulous attention to the craft of writing could prove invaluable for those seeking to become serious writers. We feel any curious reader or aspiring author would be greatly pleased by the coursework provided. There is a huge range of topics covered in such an expansive span of potentially invaluable lessons, from creative inspiration to generating ideas, challenging yourself as a writer, essay composition, publishing opportunities and more!
We had a great time exploring everything Joyce’s class has to offer and highly recommend enrolling if you’re looking to take your writing skills to the next level.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Joyce Carol Oates’s MasterClass is a fantastic way to build your writing skills and explore new ideas and techniques. Her course covers a wide variety of topics, ranging from narrative structure to characterization to authorial style. It provides an excellent overview of the craft of writing and gives invaluable advice on how to become a better writer.
Whether you have never written before or are a seasoned wordsmith hoping to hone your craft, this course is sure to be both enjoyable and insightful. With its engaging lessons, supportive critiques, and thoughtful Q&A sessions with Mrs. Oates herself, this class offers something for everyone – from beginners to veterans – to learn. If you’re looking for guidance in your writing journey, Joyce Carol Oates’s MasterClass is an outstanding starting place.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What topics does the Joyce Carol Oates MasterClass cover?
A: Joyce Carol Oates’ MasterClass covers the fundamentals of fiction writing and how to write a novel. Topics include how to craft believable characters, how to structure a novel, how to revise, how to create tension, and how to connect with readers.
Q: How long is the Joyce Carol Oates MasterClass?
A: The Joyce Carol Oates MasterClass is 8 hours long with 34 video lessons.
Q: Is the Joyce Carol Oates MasterClass worth it?
A: Yes, the Joyce Carol Oates MasterClass is worth the investment. It offers an in-depth look into the craft of writing and provides valuable advice from one of the best-known authors in the world. | https://learningselect.com/joyce-carol-oates-masterclass-review/ |
Exact Answer: Over 40,000 words
A novel narrates the fictional stories in a certain word length. It deals with uncountable cultures which combine all the human experience and their feelings in a book. It is an art of representing imaginative thoughts, crafting them nicely into words along developing connecting storyline.
Table of Contents
There are so many genres of novels available such as Suspense, Romance, Thriller, Mysteries, Historic, etc. A novel has some comparable characteristics to a short story. It has a stalwart pack of characters, climax, conflict, the plot of the story, dialogues of the characters. Although it is not obligatory that all the elements should be present in a novel.
How Long Is A Novel?
It has been considered that a good novel should have over a 40,000+ word limit. The word Novel has been derived from an Italian word that is generally used to define the short story. In all the categories, the major aim is to produce good stories to the readers.
The only distinction in all the categories is that the word limit varies from one to another. That is why they are segregated into separate divisions and named as per word count. It helps the readers while reading them.
They get to know by looking at its size that how much time it will consume to read it. There are four standard categories for writing stories.
Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story. Each category has its own word limit to narrate the story. The word limit commences from up to 7,500 words to 40,000+ words.Any book over the 40,000-word limit is judged novel.
The wordlist can be increased to 90,000 words. It is the average word limit for any novel. Over100,000 or under 50,000 it becomes difficult to sell the story to a publisher.
The too short or too long length of the story depends upon the genre writer has selected to write down. However, in the case of Novella, the words should be between 17,000-40,000. It is like a short novel.
Why Does A Novel Is So Long?
The basic components for the structure of the novel are chapters to give brief about the background, characters, dialogues, plotting to add a twist.
All the characters involved in the storyline of the novel must be developed well. The story always twirls and is based on the characters. If the characters are portrayed well then it can make readers enjoy while reading it.
Thus, it is necessary to do equal justice with the character building of the important characters of the story. Just like water helps the dead plants in bloom.
Similarly strong and engaging character roles in the story make the novel interesting and stand out piece. Dialogues are also a required component of the novel. It describes the conservation between the characters.
It depends upon the writer how he/she wants to use this factor. It helps in briefing things in a short way rather than writing big descriptions on the things. It also describes the personality of the character and gives a clue to understanding the character accurately.
Good dialogues leave a perfect impact on the readers.The addition of the plot in the story creates a twist in the whole storyline. It involved the characters and storyline.
Always prepare an outline during the planning phase for writing the novel. Quality of writing is one of the most significant factors which decides the success of the novel. No matter how the story is but the way its narration is done matters the most.
Conclusion
The main purpose of writing is to connect the readers with the book and make them feel all the characters thoroughly. That feeling of connectivity provides them with moments of joy. Some readers enjoy long novels while others don’t. The writer must understand the background of your audience before writing it down.
The story plot and characters should be the determining factor for the considerable length of the novel. A too-long novel also creates problems. A combination of balanced words over 40,000 and a good storyline with good characters is appropriate for a perfect novel. | https://exactlyhowlong.com/how-long-is-a-novel-and-why/ |
Anuradha Roy is the award-winning author of The Folded Earth and An Atlas of Impossible Longing, which has been published in sixteen countries and named by World Literature Today as one of the sixty most essential books on modern India. She lives in India.
Praise for An Atlas of Impossible Longing:
"Every once in a great while, a novel comes along to remind you why you rummage through shelves in the first place. . . . [A]s you slip into the book's pages, you sense you are entering a singular creation. . . . And then, suddenly, you are swept away. . . . This, you think, is the feeling you had as you read Great Expectations or Sophie's Choice or The Kite Runner. This is why you read fiction at all." --The Washington Post
"Roy's prose does not hit a single wrong note: its restrained beauty sings off the page." --Neel Mukherjee, Time Magazine
"Refreshing. . . . [Roy] defines her characters quickly and skillfully, she has a keen eye for landscape, and she knows how private lives can suggest the larger shape of the public world." --The New York Times
"Set in mid-twentieth-century India, this debut novel spans generations and political upheavals, [chronicling] both the strength of domestic bonds and the wounds that parents and children, and husbands and wives, inflict on each other." --The New Yorker
"Epic. . . . [a] gorgeous, sweeping novel." --Ms Magazine
"Impressive. . . . With her rich imagination, vivid descriptions, and skillful handling of events. . . . Roy weaves a tapestry of family life in India. . . . the story and characters stay with the reader for a long time. Roy is a writer to watch." --The SeattleTimes
"Roy's prose soars with a lyricism that can take your breath away. . . . From her whirlwind opening sentences, readers know they're in for a ride." --Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
"A novel to convince us that boldly drawn sagas with larger-than-life characters are still possible in a relentlessly postmodern world. . . . A sprawling epic of love, class and ambition." --Denver Post
"An incandescently evocative debut novel filled with wrenching tragedy as well as abiding passion." --Booklist
"[Roy] is a fabulous storyteller with a true gift for transporting the reader right into the heat, smells, and sights of India. . . . a poetic novel easily read again and again. A complete success and an excellent choice for a discussion group." --Library Journal
"Roy's impressive American debut. . . the sounds, smells, and feel of Bengal come vividly to life. Cultures may differ, but longing and love are universal." --Publishers Weekly
"In An Atlas of Impossible Longing, Anuradha Roy bravely explores love, the caste system, and familial lines in a vivid portrait of war-stricken twentieth-century India. This absorbing story defies prediction. Roy's grace and mesmerizing language stayed with me long after I closed the book." --Katie Crouch, author of Girls in Trucks
"A novel of beauty, poignancy, and gut-churning suspense. . . . A lyrical love letter to India's past--an India of innocent child brides and jasmine-scented summer evenings. . . . Poetic and evocative, Roy's writing is a joy." --Financial Times
"Deftly and sensitively narrated."--The Independent
"A story to lose yourself in.. . . Anuradha Roy is a wonderful writer. . . . this tale of three generations of an Indian family, set over the span of the 20th century, is brilliantly told [and] intensely moving." --Sunday Express
"Roy's novel is engaging from start to finish and difficult to put down."--The Sunday Sun
"Recalls classics from Great Expectations to The Cherry Orchard. . . . Roy's prose is luscious yet economical. Capturing the rhythms of life in rural backwater and big city alike, she strings together jewel-like episodes. . . . giving her story the quality of something remembered." --The National Newspaper
"Now here is a perfect monsoon read: an exquisitely-written first novel that flows limpid and elegiac. . . . you might find yourself unbearably moved by her delicate probing of the fragility of love and longing."--India Today
International Praise for The Folded Earth by Anuradha Roy: | https://www.fishpond.co.nz/Books/Atlas-of-Impossible-Longing-Roy-Anuradha/9781451608625 |
Length : The most obvious difference between a short story and a novel is length, typically measured in the number of words contained within. Shimmer was first performed by the author on January 5, 1988. This is what we learned in grade school. We have to live with it. Does your story involve inner thoughts of your Main Character or other characters? It is often difficult to say what is more important, the form or the content. Ideas Ideas can be found in sentences, which are arranged in paragraph.
What does prose and poetry mean? They do not write short stories that are actual complete stories. Fortunately, the Dewey Decimal numbers provide a clear and unbiased decision about this matter. This is exactly the meaning of the Hindi term 'Sahitya'. The dramatic text presents the drama as a range of verbal imagery. Just being fictional and bound isn't enough -- collections of short stories, novellas, and other fictional texts can be … bound, but they don't thereby become a novel. Yes,the emphasis is on actuality. Prose is the most typical form of language.
We give great respect to novelists. It glowered in the distance. Then read those sentences and rewrite them to show someone else what's outside your window. You can be a novelist and write short stories. Length A modern short story is usually no shorter than 1000 words but no longer than 20,000 words. Poetry often doesn't, for expressive reasons, and every word, period, etc.
In writing a novel, there is no budget. It all depends on the experience you want and are expecting to get out of it. You might say that poetry is more symbolic or that it makes more use of imagery, but all language is metaphorical and therefor symbolic in nature. Many authors write in first person, however that does not mean that the novel becomes a diary. Prose is written or spoken words. As a screenwriter, you need to have a keen sense of budget when creating your story because it does affect how your screenplay is accepted.
Merged Response In general terms, prose is the everyday language used by most speakers of a language. Under no circumstances will your data be transferred to third parties without your permission. The presence of stage directions can help you establish a piece as a work of drama. Some poetry has strong structural components and some is free from obvious structural constraint. If you shift gears right as the reader becomes interested, then you are more than likely going to lose their attention. Line break No Yes Paraphrasing Possible Exact paraphrasing is not possible.
Used more often in poetry verse is designed to elicit emotions in the reader or portray images in the mind, often abstract or metaphorical images. There can be many categories of books in which the subdivision of novel and fiction is an important one. The story being told might be complex, but you can count on all the features of everyday speech, such as paragraphs, sentences, and all the usual punctuation. A playwright first invents a drama out of mental imagery. The basic difference between prose and poetry is that we have sentences and paragraphs, whereas lines and stanzas can be found in a poetry. Grimy yellow windows winked through the fog.
Novelsare not intended to be read in a single sitting and not designed to produce a single effect. The reason for this is because short stories cover a very brief period of time. The difference between a book and a novel is that a novel refers toa fictional manuscript that represents some character and actionwhereas a book is anything printed on pages and bound within somecover. But why is it dry and boring? In contrast, books containing facts or real life incidents are called non-fiction. Prose usually has fewer structural guidelines, and in some ways, that makes poetry more of an art form.
These events require the contestants to interpret their poetry without the aid of costumes, props or sets. Cooked rice makes one full so one can live out one's life span. Poetry usually follows a set pattern, rhyme scheme and meter. There are several significant differences, just like there are or between a story and a novel. This is mainly because of the of the words in poetry Difference between Prose and Poetry In Conclusion The prose is direct or straightforward writing.
Information regarding Dewey Decimal categories and subdivisions is available on the University of Illinois website at. You have to be a short story writer. Most, if not all, of the narrations have been shortened — most noticeably the letters between characters. Organization of language such as into stanzas tends to associate with poetry, but there are, of course, exceptions. The structure or the meters give it a pattern.
Is it because they're a lesser quality piece of literature? The first time I saw him, I watched him flail and twitch for five minutes, debating whether or not to inform him of his embarrassment by asking him to shut his curtains. Prose is rendered in paragraph blocks, with the sentences running into each other without a break. Definition of Prose The prose is an ordinary writing style in literature, which encompasses characters, plot, mood, theme, the point of view, setting, etc. In literary prose as well as poetry, it is not just the meaning that is important, but also the medium. Sometimes we group literature according to the topic matter fiction, non-fiction, mystery, drama, and so on , but here we're grouping it according to format. Recently I have heard some advice for people who want to read classic literature but have trouble truly focusing on the story. | http://williballenthin.com/difference-between-prose-and-novel.html |
Rachel and Eliza are hoping to have a baby. The couple spend many happy evenings together planning for the future.
One night Rachel wakes up screaming and tells Eliza that an ant has crawled into her eye and is stuck there. She knows it sounds mad - but she also knows it's true. As a scientist, Eliza won't take Rachel's fear seriously and they have a bitter fight. Suddenly their entire relationship is called into question.
Inspired by some of the best-known thought experiments in philosophy, particularly philosophy of mind, Love and Other Thought Experiments is a story of love lost and found across the universe.
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
ISBN: 9781472154590
Number of pages: 272
Weight: 382 g
Dimensions: 218 x 138 x 26 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
In Love and Other Thought Experiments, Ward proposes to alter the colour of her readers' minds . . . But the success of Ward's venture inevitably depends on the quality of the writing. This is often moving, exuberant and sensitive. We care about her characters and share their hopes and fears. Ward's investigation and practice of empathy is easily the best thing in the book. * the Guardian *
It is an act of such breath-taking imagination, daring and detail that the journey we are on is believable and the debate in the mind non-stop. There are elements of Doris Lessing in the writing - a huge emerging talent here -- Fiona Shaw
Love and Other Thought Experiments is a towering literary achievement. Sophie's prose is exquisite and her storytelling powerful, poignant and utterly gripping. An astonishing debut * Ruth Hogan, author of The Keeper of Lost Things *
Philosophy meets fiction in this beguiling and intriguing novel of minds, hearts, other worlds, love, death and everything in between. It's a book that dances and dazzles with ideas and left me thinking long after I finished it
Sophie Kinsella
Ward has achieved something quite extraordinary: a super-smart metaphysical romp that's also warm, wistful and heartfelt. A book that declares, winningly, that just because it's all in your head, it doesn't mean it's not real. * the Daily Telegraph *
Sophie Ward's writing is as clear as a knife sounded against a glass and just as attention-grabbing. Fiction, fable and philosophy combined together with real human folly and fate at its heart. This book is as hard to pin down as it's impossible to forget -- Janet Ellis, author of How It Was
I loved Love and Other a Thought Experiments. Each chapter works as a story, immersive and compelling, and then the wider structure takes over, the harmonics sound out, and it accumulates into a universe of its own. Really ingenious, full of wisdom, full of love -- Richard Beard
Love and Other Thought Experiments is acutely original and thought-provoking. From beginning to end it is beautifully observed, intelligently constructed and deftly handled. Love and Other Thought Experiments is as multi-faceted as a diamond; a true philosophical hoard; a book I shall always treasure -- Laura Carlin, author of The Wicked Cometh
Sophie Ward is an innovative and highly sophisticated writer -- Blake Morrison
Elegant, erudite, brave and moving, Sophie Ward's debut is a stunning achievement -- Beatrice Hitchman, author of Petite Mort
Love and Other Thought Experiments is brilliant and playful. From the first page you know you're in a unique and compelling universe of Ward's making -- Elizabeth Reeder, author of Ramshackle
A game changer * Rena Brannan, Diva magazine *
Ward's ingenious fiction debut stands in a tradition of philosophical fiction: Voltaire's Candide, Sartre's Nausea . . . [Her] writing is often moving, exuberant and sensitive . . . gifts of bravura wit and imagination * Guardian *
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Home / Books / Hard questions: What makes a great writer? What makes a great novel?
When I hear people fawn over their favourite writers or novels I often notice giant blind spots mixed in with their idolization. That isn’t to say there is necessarily a problem with that, no one should need to justify their preferences. I happen to love a lot of things – books, TV shows, music – that I am fully aware aren’t brilliant. But that admission in itself is a puzzling one.
What makes a book or writer good? Is this quality innate or is it bestowed on them by others? And by others, is that critics, readers, or a combination of both? For instance, is a best seller necessarily ‘good’ based off number of sales even if critics hate it? Or vice versa?
One of my favourite pieces of philosophical writing is The Euthyphro, Plato’s account of Socrates’ trial. Socrates asks what makes something holy – is it holy simply because it is or is it holy because the gods say so? Thousands of years later we are asking the same questions – albeit about different subject matter – and are seemingly no closer to an answer.
While institutions and critics can sway our opinions of literature, their views aren’t the be all end all. You may still love a book that has been universally panned by critics – whose opinion on it wins out? Even though there may not be a definitive system to adjudicating whether a book is good or bad, there are certain features that a good book can’t go without. When it comes to classifying writers’ abilities, I look to the variety of their output. Of course, no matter what system we put it place, each book, every writer, will be subjectively judged by individual readers.
There are many theories of art and aesthetics. Many dwell on what a piece of art is. For the sake of this argument, every piece of prose fiction is art, though whether it is good art is TBD. One popular theory is the institutional theory of art, where artworks are deemed worthy of that categorization if art institutions say they do. This could be applied to written works in that a ‘good’ piece of fiction writing is considered good if literary critics say so. But does that really follow?
Take film criticism, for instance. The critics often have very different responses to films than the general public. Does that make the public’s opinion invalid? Sites like Rotten Tomatoes have noticed this disparity and included it in their system for ranking films – averaging out both critic and general population responses to get a well-rounded view of the film.
I don’t believe that we can ever develop a system to definitively categorise any works of art into good or bad. Having said that, there are of course general rules to live by (and to break).
Maybe it is true that recent generations have shorter attention spans, but I don’t think that is an argument in favour of tedious, overblown, pretentious drivel. If it’s hard to read and makes me want to smash my head against the wall, I don’t see how there is any way it can be a good book.
If a novel has no narrative or a nonsensical one, odds are it won’t be a ‘good’ book. Likewise, if the writer can barely string a sentence together it is likely to never find it’s way into the classics pile (though we have all noticed times where this does not preclude them from the best seller list). There are other elements to novels such as characters, setting, theme, etc, that are very important, but it’s prose and narrative that are the backbone. If those elements aren’t working, the rest of it will fall apart. Don’t believe me? Take fairy tales, character development in fairy tales tends to be non-existent, but the story and the prose is what keeps us hooked and helps them to remain popular.
As with anything, it is a matter of degrees. It is very common to find a writer or novel that has a particular strength in one of these areas, leaving the other to drag behind. And yet, they might often still be considered ‘good’ – or at least sell well (I still see no excuse for the success of 50 Shades of Grey, though. Come on, both the prose and the narrative are AWFUL). Take the Harry Potter series for instance, they are great stories (with lots of fabulous world building), but Rowling’s prose is not the bee’s knees. On the other side, Henry Miller’s ‘novel’ Tropic of Cancer has very little ‘story’ to it, but the prose is so compelling the reader can’t help but stick around.
Some writers spend their careers writing the same books over and over in slightly different ways. I’ve always wondered how that doesn’t bore the writer to tears? And the readers? Why do they go back and spend money on the same book with different character names and a new cover? If a writer is able to write beautiful prose in a variety of styles and deliver content on a diverse range of subject matter, they may well find themselves at the top of the pack (at least in my book anyway).
The bottom line is that we all have our own tastes. What one person loves, another will hate. There is no such thing as a ‘good’ book or a ‘good’ writer, only the ones that you like. Don’t let institutionalized snobbery put you off the kinds of books you enjoy reading.
Of course, there are certain elements that go a long way when attempting to deliver a good piece of writing, but as with all things, traditional rules are to be broken. While we may never have a definitive way of telling whether a writer or novel is ‘great’, there are still benchmarks writers can work towards. | http://pop-verse.com/2015/02/16/hard-questions-what-makes-a-great-writer-what-makes-a-great-novel/ |
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The essays have little narrative throughline, thrusting us forward and back in time, touching on topics as disparate as couchsurfing to book reviews to the buildup and breakdown of relationships. The constant here is Attenberg herself, and the collection is all the stronger for it ... Attenberg is at her most evocative when she digs into details, and details abound in this collection ... Each essay is loosely structured around a single topic, but each tends to meander from anecdote to anecdote. In most of these, Attenberg’s casual yet incisive voice shines through, as if we’re sharing stories in a cozy room with glasses of wine in hand. However, this does not mean that the content itself is always breezy ... A drawback lies perhaps more in expectation than quality. For those expecting a collection more overtly about writing, this may read disappointing ... It is a craft book in that it leads by example, shows us a writing life and a devotion to craft that we can all aspire to, even if we never traverse the world. Even though my life is on a very different path from Attenberg’s despite our shared origins, this is something I can take with me in my own practice.
Mina Seckin
Positive
The Chicago Review of Books
... a detailed work that calls upon both the specificity of the character’s experience, as well as the universality of the disillusioned millennial, and becomes a novel of broad, unexpected appeal ... This single line transforms this novel from detailed character study to something more universal and relatable, to readers Turkish and non-Turkish, to anyone that has come from someone and deals with their own inadequacy ... However, Sibel’s perspective only goes so far as we navigate the multitude of conflicts in
The Four Humors
. We are ultimately overwhelmed by her grandmother’s illness and family secrets, extended relatives with their own input, the legacy of a deceased father, illnesses in Sibel’s sister and other family, passive-aggressive confrontations with friends, the ups and downs of a college romance, and so much more. To compensate, the book reads long, attempting to tackle all of these threads in Sibel’s subtle, distant voice. Perhaps a more focused narrative could aid the novel along, de-emphasizing supporting characters and bringing our attention back to the four humors themselves, which at times are lost as the novel goes on ... a worthy addition to the growing catalog of millennial diaspora stories. We do not fall in love with Sibel, nor should we, though we may empathize with her headfirst journey into adulthood. Seçkin nails certain unappreciated subtleties, such as family loving a white partner more than yourself, or one’s accent and knowledge of politics called into question due to nationality. Sibel lived before this tale and will live on long after the pages come to an end, and in this respect, the novel truly shines.
Chris Stuck
Rave
The Chicago Review of Books
Chris Stuck knows what he’s doing. In
Give My Love to the Savages
, his debut short story collection, deliberation and intention shine through. These are stories centered around the anguishes of Black men, rendered here as both heroes and antiheroes. The stories are forthright with their unpacking of masculinity, grief, and identity. And at their best, they linger ceaselessly in the mind ... Where these explorations of masculinity fall slightly short are in the more absurdist stories of the collection ... Overall, however, Stuck presents us with a strong, focused debut collection. He creates nuanced characters, crafts varied perspectives on race and gender in America, and shows off his talent for economy of words and sharp dialogue throughout the book. As a young Indian-American woman, likely not of Chris Stuck’s intended audience, I enjoyed this collection on the outside looking in, and revel in this perspective. To me this collection helps debunk the idea that men are not privy to their own flaws and insecurities. Rather, when these are claimed and understood, art can result.
Lucy Corin
Mixed
The Chicago Review of Books
In Lucy Corin’s
The Swank Hotel
, there are moments of pure clarity. In its explorations of corporate America, of familial loss and grief, and of 2008 recession-era life, the novel shines. But in its interstitial space, darting from one narrator to another in the tangled web of love, relationships, and confusion, the novel puzzles. This is not a book to read in an afternoon, but one to chew and digest over time. And when given this space, we still may not understand ... On corporate life, Corin nails the crafted persona such an environment craves, showing us that there is an inherent madness in our day to day lives ... It is in these moments that the novel comes together, but in its inclusion of the surreal, things fly off the rails. Strange dreams permeate the minds of Em, Frank, and other characters. A sewn-up mouth jars the reader, but what it adds up to remains to be seen. Sexuality and horror, in the form of extended pornography scenes and pages of dead baby jokes achieve a tone of aversion, but read as accessories to the main throughlines ... While some digressions, such as the My Strange Addiction episode summary on urine drinking, contribute to the characters’ struggles with madness, others feel like dangling threads without resolution. The structure of the work veers from novel to collection of isolated vignettes, reminiscent of Corin’s earlier work
One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses
. But in this work the vignettes are abandoned and return to the main story and its central players, leaving the reader wondering what their ultimate significance really was ... The novel is far from comfortable, its ideas and prose are densely packed. Corin’s skill as a prose stylist cannot be discounted, she demonstrates over and over a deep understanding of her characters and literary ideas. But how these ideas come through on the page is wholly uneven. The novel begs for rumination in between periods of confusion. Such is the nature of madness.
Shruti Swamy
Rave
Chicago Review of Books
Shruti Swamy’s
The Archer
is a searing portrait of the woman artist—how these identities, too, are in opposition—and, in this work, she brings to life new ideas of fulfillment ... The novel itself is a character study, a real-time tale of self-actualization, and revels in the specific and minute. Even India she brings down to its smallest circles—a single village, an engineering college, a rich man’s house. In this specificity, the writing shines, aiming not to make broad, sweeping statements but to fill in the colors of our artist’s life. Vidya forms few close bonds throughout the book, but each one is exquisite ... As a whole, the novel infuriates, exhilarates, and challenges our ideas of art and artistry. It immerses us in a microcosm of a setting and in an introspective sole protagonist. It does justice to an age-old myth and recontextualizes its lessons ... Swamy has defined herself as a bold new voice in not only South Asian diaspora literature, but modern literature as a whole.
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh
Positive
The Chicago Review of Books
We are anchored in the here and now, yet the stories do not read as grasping for relevance, or as dated. Rather, Sayrafiezadeh captures one of the most essential feelings of the modern-day United States, apathy, and holds us to that feeling. The result is an at-times subtle, at-times on the nose, depiction of deterioration and uncertainty in a changing nation ... This slim collection brings us just seven stories, but most are long enough to flesh out entire ideas and realized narratives. Some of these narratives prove simpler than others ... The apathy has its shortcomings as Sayrafiezadeh delves into some of the more shocking subject matter of the collection. For instance, the story
Fairground
is a retrospective telling of a public hanging. What the story ultimately becomes is the exploration of a family in disarray, a failure to bond with a new step-parent, and a difficult mother-child relationship. While the descriptive writing remains strong throughout, it’s easy to want stronger emotional moments to pair with a public hanging. Instead, the tone stays consistent and the collection marches along, rendering everything in a tonal lull ... By closing his collection with an embrace of realism, Sayrafiezadeh leaves us with the understanding that in every iteration, we’ve been reading about America all along. Its doldrums, flaws, shortcomings, and the myriad of characters that grow and thrive within its borders.
Michelle Zauner
Rave
Chicago Review of Books
It is not unusual for a memoir to describe the decline and aftermath of a loved one, and what it means to move on ... Michelle Zauner’s take is exquisitely detailed and wonderfully layered, both episodic in its individual essays and continuous in its exploration of grief. Its depictions of motherhood and daughterhood stand alone ... The essays lose their episodic nature and weave together as a cohesive memoir. Themes mentioned earlier are picked up and carried on ... It’s a natural impulse to reminisce and block out sour memories when remembering someone lost. Creating a new picture from the pieces we have. Zauner, however, shows us all the pieces. We see how her mother’s legacy lives in its fragmented way, in photographs, family members, and recipes ... I came to
Crying in H Mart
expecting to cry (which I did), but what I did not expect was the amount of self-reflection it would cause. Zauner eschews broad platitudes and makes her work relatable, both on a cultural and personal level. She does not overexplain her Korean heritage, doesn’t provide a footnote for every morsel of food ... In this book, Zauner brings us all in so close that we’re left with no other option but to examine our own lives just as closely.
Andrea Lee
Positive
The Chicago Review of Books
... the beauty of
Red Island House
is that it is now, spanning a time from the early nineties to present day. Colonialism and its legacies are alive and well, though our understanding of it may be more complex ... the beauty of Red Island House is that it is now, spanning a time from the early nineties to present day. Colonialism and its legacies are alive and well, though our understanding of it may be more complex ... At times the novel changes course, becoming what feels like a set of short stories telling the tale of other island residents...While these journeys are engaging, they take us away from Shay’s narrative and can feel meandering at times ... Nevertheless, Naratrany is a captivating setting, made more so by Andrea Lee’s choice in narration. Rather than a conventional third person narration focused on Shay, Lee takes a few steps back and tells Shay’s story like a fable for the ages ... a difficult work to characterize: part novel, part collection, part epic. Lee shows us a new setting, its natural beauty and stark class divisions, and its rich culture and settler exploitation. By centering Shay she shows us the nuance of privilege and culpability. She takes care to focus on the voices of foreigners, stating in a detailed author’s note her deep affection for Malagasy literature and the need for own voices narratives. More than anything, Andrea Lee shows us that the conversation on colonialism is far from over, and far from one-dimensional. To acknowledge its presence is to acknowledge how many of us, in one way or another, have a small part to play.
María José Ferrada, tr. Elizabeth Bryer
Rave
Chicago Review of Books
In
How to Order the Universe
, readers are thrown into a child’s perspective as she eschews traditional learning in order to make a living with her father on the road. A world of tools and hardware catalogs lends itself to new relationships, unearthed secrets, and a coming-of-age story no one quite expected. This sparse, quiet novel is itself a collection of parts. Not quite a novel, far from a collection of stories, more disparate vignettes than anything else. At times, these feel incomplete. Parts without their fittings ... In short, this is a book of a child learning her own mortality, learning her larger place in the world, creating her own constructs and having them fall apart with experience and tragedy. We see this in a literal sense, as M envisions an omnipotence she calls \'The Great Carpenter,\' and soon curses and loses track of this being. In this change we now have the fittings we need to understand this unconventional little story. Here we learn to read between the lines.
Avni Doshi
Rave
The Chicago Review of Books
With a tightly controlled narrative voice and careful use of flashbacks, Doshi presents the result of unpacked generational trauma. Uncertainty, instability, chaos ... The prose is calculated and focused on mundane details and introspection. There is little to no sentimentality and an undercurrent of paranoia which makes for at times a deeply uncomfortable read. Even in the most melodramatic moments, there is a coldness and detachment ... What Doshi presents is no simple mother-daughter conflict. It is a voyeuristic journey into alternative living and religious fervor. It is the emptiness of middle-class existence and perfunctory friendships. It is a marriage void of true intimacy, motherhood brought about for the wrong reasons. It is all of these things and more. This is a layered, descriptive, at times distasteful novel that brings us face to face with our own darker impulses and deep-seated traumas. Antara, though a victim in many ways, abuses others, which can make readers struggle to understand her. Doshi’s novel is a warning of what can arise when the past is not unearthed, not shared, and healing hasn’t begun. This is a book worthy of respect and admiration, and deserving of its place on the Booker Prize shortlist. It can be hard to love a book when the characters are stingy with love and affection and forthcoming with long-held loathing. But as a contained, haunting narrative, the book excels ... Despite the shock and visceral disgust I felt in reaction to some of the book’s twists and turns, I would be lying if I said the misery in this book, particularly experienced by its characters, did not give me a small, twisted pleasure.
Thomas Maltman
Mixed
The Chicago Review of Books
The prose of this novel is sparse and somewhat conversational, reflecting Lucien’s age and the bleakness of a Minnesota winter. We’re thrown into lengthy descriptions of dated technology and Christian meditation, but as someone unacquainted with either, I found the verbiage easy to navigate. The Land reads quickly, for a time ... The Land spreads itself thin with atmosphere, with paranoia, with characters that float in and out, with mysterious ravens that spill their carnage in the snow. But the plot propels itself, compelling readers to the end. And the discomfort lives on. 1999 was twenty-one years ago, but the threat of white supremacy unfortunately remains.
Peter Lovesey
Positive
Chicago Review of Books
The Finisher
is distinct in my mind due to its integration of technology, its multiple perspectives, and its banter between characters ... As a mystery itself, it’s quite compelling and demands to be read in a single, long sitting. Where it falters, though, is in some of its literary elements. Lovesey’s characters sometimes serve as plot elements rather than full-fledged people. One character, simply known as Jones, provides a vaguely deus ex machina role in the overall story. Narratives are picked up and set aside at whim and, at times, information is withheld a little too long to be seen as believable. Some plot threads feel unresolved, especially given the amount of time we’re given with the characters in question. Perhaps the greatest detractor here, however, is dialogue. Much of the novel is spent in banter, all pleasingly British and perhaps compelling to Lovesey’s longtime fans. As a new reader, I found it distracting. We’re held in meandering conversations for pages on end ... Despite the flaws in
The Finisher
, I came away impressed by the storytelling, the relative pace of the plot, and of the frequent twists and turns that made this a compelling read.
Andrea Hairston
Positive
The Chicago Review of Books
... clear, satisfying, and fruitful ... much to admire ... Close relationships between characters throb with passion, even when given little time to develop ... The novel is at its best in its quiet moments, when Djola and Awa’s narratives intertwine, and long-held emotions and confessions are brought to the forefront. In a war-torn landscape, with hardly a moment to breathe, these quiet moments are a place of refuge ... Where I, as a new fantasy reader, fell short was in understanding the details of the world as a whole. Many times I read a language or societal role, never quite internalized its significance, and found it come back over and over again and reminding me of my lack of understanding ... Hairston’s worldbuilding is complex, frequently layered, and to look for a simplistic, clean-cut magic system is to search fruitlessly ... While we’re frequently reminded of
Xhalan Xhala
, spell of all spells, its true significance and origins remain murky and difficult to interpret. Part of the overall confusion I attribute to my own lack of experience in new worlds. Yet I am left to wonder if the novel being so grand in scope could have focused more time in developing the characters and their relationships to one another. More moments of levity, to break from the tension. More frequent reminders of when all is lost, what these characters are ultimately living for. More moments of humanity ... at its core,
Master of Poisons
is a novel of folklore, of corruption, of both reclaiming tradition and starting anew, and honoring myriad voices in society (the powerful and marginalized). One can delight in the multifaceted worldbuilding, the many languages and threads of folklore, and the blending of the real world and the spirit world. For new fantasy readers, the novel is ultimately grounded in all too familiar themes, those of acceptance, survival, and justice. Themes we, especially those most marginalized in our communities, can recognize at once.
Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay
Positive
The Chicago Review of Books
... breathes new life into these ideas with an entirely new cultural context, sharp humor, and several intriguing female leads ... Mukhopadhyay’s take on Gothic romance tropes is surprisingly fresh, in part due to its humor ... As a novella,
The Aunt Who Wouldn’t Die
is succinct and colorful, barely discernible as a translation when it comes to pure prose. If anything, it cries out for more development. Here I acknowledge my own tastes as a reader, and my desire to see point of view characters balanced evenly. While Somlata’s narrative is well-developed and takes its time, Boshon’s narrative is somewhat limited. I found myself wanting more from her character, her intellectual pursuits, her reflections on how she was raised. Additionally, a longer length could’ve allowed for a more fleshed-out setting, sensory imagery, and other subtleties. But overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this short, engaging story ... Nothing short of enjoyable.
Shubhangi Swarup
Mixed
The Chicago Review of Books
... unfurls into a book of fairy tales, stories woven together by a few recurring characters and a pervasive prose style ... Swarup’s prose is both the novel’s highlight and what holds it back. On the plus side, there is no sensory detail or wisp of an idea that goes unexplored. Fully fleshed out are the movements of water, passage of time, presence of the mountains, and transfer of one life to another ... However, while this prose is spellbinding in small doses, it results in fatigue ... The narrative can feel weighed down by heavy, detailed prose, as well as deep introspection by each and every character. Additionally, the novel has few moments of levity, and can go many pages without dialogue. The dialogues featured are often philosophical musings on the movements of the world. The characters sometimes laugh, but we don’t often feel laughter. Moments of happiness are few and ephemeral, with the characters’ moods constantly changing like the planet itself ... In short, this is a novel I recommend in small, incremental pieces. To read it all at once may feel like a weight on your shoulders.
An Yu
Positive
The Chicago Review of Books
Woven through the plain, direct prose of Beijing life and Jia Jia’s innermost thoughts are scenes in a ‘world of water’. Jia Jia finds herself submerged in darkness, the fish-man her only company, and each experience leaves her more puzzled than the last. These journeys, while beautifully written and evocative, are not what resonate with readers of
Braised Pork
. Rather, it is how this simple image of a mysterious fish-man forges relationships old and new, and how it bolsters Jia Jia’s sense of self ... what An Yu importantly brings to life is not only Jia Jia’s interior but, also, her societal context ... Aspects of the novel, at times, feel disjointed. Things are neither told in the order we expect nor do we get, many times, explanations for the questions we have. Jia Jia can be frustrating as a protagonist too, her life of privilege often making her blind to the cares and concerns of others ... Certain plot threads aren’t as neatly woven as we’d hope, though this may or may not be a detractor depending on your perspective. Characters come and go, as if mirroring Jia Jia’s blase attitudes. But the culmination of the novel, which I cannot spoil for you today, is all too rewarding. And even if we ourselves will never experience the world of water, much of Jia Jia’s journey will ring true. We all battle restrictions in one way or another, some of which the world places on us; but the most difficult ones remain those we place on ourselves.
Megan Giddings
Positive
The Chicago Review of Books
Giddings takes the distrust of her community and amplifies it, creating something wholly new and modern ... Giddings maintains a tight hold on us for much of the book. Her plainspoken yet detailed prose draws us close to Lena, allowing us to get to know Lena’s independent spirit and sharp observations ... Prose like this keeps us tightly wound, hanging on Gidding’s every word and Lena’s every move. We feel a paranoia unique to the digital age, censored searches and blocked websites, constantly being heard and watched. And eventually, when things spiral out of control and Giddings lets us go, we’re left reeling. Dizzy. We pick up some pieces but not all of them.
Tishani Doshi
Positive
The Chicago Review of Books
... not a comforting book ... Doshi narrows our distance from Grace with a potent voice, present tense, crisp prose, and a limited cast of characters. Grace grapples with a number of internal conflicts, such as loneliness, aging, family relationships, lust, and womanhood. She jumps from one to the next without pause, and the result is a tightly constructed narrative in which her conflicts become our own. She is not likable, but understandable, almost painfully so. I read this book in a constant state of argument, recognizing a kinship with Grace while repudiating many of her choices ... challenges the maudlin perception of disability in popular media, sparing no detail in Grace’s struggles to care for her sister ... it speaks to the strength of the story itself that this setting does not overwhelm the novel and its characters. Rather, the story of Grace and Lucia could have taken place anywhere. Nowhere have the questions surrounding their lives been fully answered anyway ... speaks to those conflicts relatable to young, modern women of any country.
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I missed posting on my regular day, Wednesday, because I was up early preparing to send the most recent novel to an agent who requested a full after reading my email query. It turned out to be significant that I included the first 5 pages in the query.
I thought I'd share that query with you, and then something about what this particular agent looks for in a sample of the first 5 pages and why she asks for them. This leads to why you should perhaps look for agents that do accept samples versus those who don't.
The query doesn't follow the "hook" pattern that Miss Snark talks about in her Crapometer, but as she would be the first to tell you, it's not conforming to a pattern that matters, it's whatever works. She's also a proponent of sending the first 5 pages with a query. If you read her blog, you know she says, over and over, "It's all about the writing."
First, here's the query email:
Subject: novel query
Dear Agent
Cutting to the chase: DEATH SUCKS: ON BEING A VAMPIRE KITTY-CAT is definitely paranormal. It is also satire, and humor.
It's a vampire novel for people who don't like vampire novels.
It's a novel for all cat lovers. I believe the audience is broader than a strict genre category.
DEATH SUCKS: ON BEING A VAMPIRE KITTY-CAT begins this way:
Just after dark, death grabbed me by the ass. Literally. The moon was out, cool September breezes were scented with hints that fall was coming, and I was trotting over a mound of fresh earth, not an uncommon thing in a graveyard, my mind on a svelte little Siamese over on 15th Street who was coming into heat. A hand shot up out of the dirt and grabbed my hind legs.
The narrator is PATCH, a calico tomcat who is plunged into the vampire underground of Bloomburg, Illinois. As Patch says about two-thirds of the way through his story, when he's trapped in a basement and the owner is coming to get him with a shotgun,
Give me a break. I mean, in the last couple of days I'd had my blood sucked out of me, been turned into a vampire, nearly crunched a couple of times by a seven-foot undead guy, almost skewered with a wooden stake by a Fundamentalist mob, came inches from having my tail cut off, was nearly fried by the sun, been kidnapped twice, and tried for murder. Oh, yeah, and almost turned into a politician.
And Patch is far from done with an adventure that lets him
--and you --in on what it's really like to be a vampire in contemporary America.
I'd be pleased to send you the 63,000-word manuscript
--I can mail a hard copy, or email a Word doc, or hire a skywriter, or you could just click on this link to an instantly available PDF: http://www.urlforpdf.pdf.
The first 5 pages are below.
About me:
* Litblogger: Flogging the Quill, top-10 Publishers Marketplace blog on the craft of storytelling
* Day job: editor/writer, Washington State University main website
* Freelance editor of fiction (editorrr.com)
Many thanks for your time and consideration.
All best,
And then the first five pages were pasted into the email, which is the agent's preference. A couple of days later I received a request for the full manuscript. It may not succeed with her, but at least it got through the door. By the way, including a link to a PDF file of the complete manuscript is an idea I got after e-talking with Miss Snark about how most agents review material. Other than the first 5 pages and a full, she says many agents read electronic files. So I thought, why not make one readily available?
After the request, I Googled the agent. In a discussion thread about
her on WritersNet, I learned why she requests 5 pages, and it turns out
to be the same reason agents who accept samples are at the top of my
list. A writer sent this agent an absolutely horrible query letter that
she would have rejected outright
I also found something from her on one of her client's blogs about what she looks for in the first 5 pages.
"Every manuscript I take on is distinctive in its own right, but all of them have one thing in common: an engaging narrative voice. By this I mean a writing style that pulls me in and makes me feel like I'm a part of the story and the characters' lives. Unfortunately, this is very hard to explain and it's obviously even harder to accomplish. I think that authors, being the wonderful lovers of language that they are, sometimes forget that the primary purpose of writing is communication. Too often I see manuscripts in which the prose is too self-conscious, chock full of symbolism and SAT-type vocabulary. Tell your story, tell it well, and your distinctive narrative voice should blossom naturally. So, an engaging narrative voice is vital. I also like it when I'm introduced to compelling characters, protagonists that are sympathetic yet complex. Another thing I look for is high line tension, best described as the ability to create enough of a question in the reader's mind to keep them turning the pages. Clichés, bad grammar, too many adjectives, and awkward prose are all turn-offs."
This gave me instant insight into why she responded to my query; if nothing else, my kitty-cat reeks of voice.
By the way, I sent this same query to 11 agents just a few days ago, and it's generated 1 request for the full and 5 rejections
Wish me luck.
Questions, anyone?
If anyone has a question on the craft of storytelling or writing for effect, please ask. It helps me to think about all aspects of writing, and some writers tell me that the answers help them. So please ask, either in an email or in a comment.
For what it's worth,
Ray
Public floggings available. If I can post it here, send 1st chapter or prologue as an attachment and I'll critique the first couple of pages.
ARCHIVES . | https://www.floggingthequill.com/flogging_the_quill/marketing/page/3/ |
Voice in fiction sings a strange song. It makes no sound but inside the mind of the reader each line, each paragraph and page reverberates with its rhythms and beat. What are we talking about when we discuss a story’s voice, a writer’s voice? We can hear it if it’s there, if the story has been strongly and effectively vocalised, but we can struggle to define how it works. What is this thing? How do they do it? How does it work upon us? A story can be cunningly paced and plotted, yet fall flat on the page if the voice isn’t there. Problems of voice can also cause knock-on problems with plot, character, dialogue, narrative viewpoint.
Maybe we can see voice as a collusion of things, then, a variety of techniques and elements that a writer needs to control in even something as complex as a tightly framed and simple novel. That something is wrong with a novel often points to there being something wrong with the voice.
We can see voice as a kind of benchmark, the quality our work needs to have, whatever its intention, whatever its genre. Finding a voice is the overwhelming issue all writers face, whether they are just starting out or are an old hand embarking on a new project. For Al Alvarez, ‘Voice is a problem that never lets you go.’For Josip Novakovich, it’s about finding your ‘writer’s vigour.’ The writer should have a voice. The story also needs a voice. These voices overlap but are not necessarily the same thing.
Don’t fret unduly if your writing doesn’t find its voice straightaway. You may have to put it through its paces, stay with it a while before you find the voice or the voice finds you. As with everything with writing, drafting is the key, and drafting is merely another way of saying: stick with it.
Be yourself
If we can say anything definite at all about voice it is that it’s central to the success of a piece of writing. Previously unheard-of writers with a first book out are often described as ‘an exciting new voice’. Voice here implies a signature quality, something that belongs to the writer alone. This quality depends on how whatever is written is written. Thus, Susan Sontag is able to describe the prose of the Swiss short story writer Robert Walser as ‘A Paul Klee in prose – as delicate, as sly, as haunted’, and Michel Houllebecq describe the voice of HP Lovecraft as a ‘massive attack’ on the reader. Walser and Lovecraft were very different writers, but their writing came from some place within them that no else could go. A quality existed there that couldn’t be bottled or imitated.
On the other hand, by voice we can mean vision: what is shown of life and living. What and who are described and accounted for? What that is new and of the now is experienced? News of what unusual types of people in what new settings or situations are brought from the frontier?
The first stage, then, to finding your voice is to write in your own organic, natural style, not that of other writers you admire. It is very common in creative writing workshops for students to be told somewhere along to line to write how you speak, or ‘you should describe that on the page just like you just described it in class’.
Influences are instructive but they are a bank of cloud that needs to be broken through before we can discover the bright, blue yonder of distinct personal vision. You may find that you go through several phases of imitating writers you love before you settle into your own groove. This is a common experience even with writers we now consider to have strong and well-established voices. For example, Stephen King, when discussing his early forays in writing fiction, says,‘When I read Ray Bradbury as a kid, I wrote like Ray Bradbury—everything green and wondrous and seen through a lens smeared with the grease of nostalgia. When I read James M. Cain, everything I wrote came out clipped and stripped and hard-boiled. When I read Lovecraft, my prose became luxurious and Byzantine. I wrote stories in my teenage years where all these styles merged, creating a kind of hilarious stew.’
Even Stephen King went through this process, had a little voyage of discovery before he found out that he was Stephen King. You will too (though you probably won’t find out that you’re Stephen King). The overbearing nature of influence may also account for why it’s often the third attempted novel in which the writer finds their stride, their unique way of saying and narrating, their voice.
All stories – structurally, formally – juggle many similar, even interchangeable elements. Types of plots that use certain types of characters and settings fall into genres, for example, big genres like SF or scandi-noir, or smaller genres like trans coming-of-age. It’s voice, though, that makes stories unique, and by voice here we mean prose that has a personality mainlined directly from you, from that singular place in you that no one else can visit. Your voice is your experience of the world on the page. Don’t be scared to lace your language with a lot of yourself, your feelings and emotions, loves and hates, slants, slang, standpoints, dreams, desires, wishes and wants. Your attitude, yourself, will be apparent in your syntax, grammar, vocabulary, phrasing and whether you tend to max out on your language or strip it back to the bare and most suggestive of minimums. If this is absent, the story can become a plodding procedure or vacant void. | https://londonghostwriting.com/voice/ |
# The Water Dancer
The Water Dancer is the debut novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates, published on September 24, 2019, by Random House under its One World imprint. It is a surrealist story set in the pre–Civil War South, concerning a superhuman protagonist named Hiram Walker who possesses photographic memory, but who cannot remember his mother, and, late in the novel, is able to transport people over long distances by using a power known as "conduction". This power is based in the power of memory and storytelling and can fold the Earth like fabric and allows him to travel across large areas via waterways.
The novel debuted at number one on The New York Times fiction best-seller list and was selected for the revival of Oprah's Book Club.
## Plot
Hiram Walker was born into slavery during the Antebellum South on a declining tobacco plantation in Virginia named Lockless. He is the mixed-race son of a white plantation owner and a black mother who was sold away by his father when Hiram was young. The local community consists of the enslaved ("the Tasked"); the landowners ("the Quality"); and the low-class whites ("the Low"). Hiram has an extraordinary photographic memory but is unable to remember his mother. However, in one instance when Hiram is driving across a bridge he suddenly has a vision of his mother dancing. When the vision ends, his carriage has fallen into the water. His (white) half brother drowns, but Hiram is transported out of the water. He learns that his miracle survival was a result of a superhuman ability he has called conduction, which transports himself and others across impossible distances. This conduction is triggered by powerful memories: those of his mother. He eventually becomes involved with the Underground Railroad. Hiram escapes to Philadelphia, where he encounters Box Brown and Jarm Logue. He eventually comes to meet a famous member of the Underground named Moses, who also has the power of Conduction. Moses is later revealed to be Harriet Tubman.
## Background
Coates began writing the novel around 2008 and 2009. He had recently finished his first memoir, The Beautiful Struggle, and was encouraged by his agent to write fiction. At the time, Coates was extensively researching slavery and the Civil War. He was influenced by author E. L. Doctorow and "how he almost reinvented history; he made history his in a certain kind of way". Coates cited Doctorow's novels Ragtime (1975) and Billy Bathgate (1989) as early influences and recalled later reading The Waterworks. He was also influenced by his childhood love of comic books and, in general, the concept of heroes. While researching the Civil War, he was frustrated with how "a lot of the people who were held up as heroic were in fact straight-up white supremacists." Coates worked on the novel for a decade in "various degrees".
## Reception
The Water Dancer received favorable reviews, with a cumulative "Positive" rating at the review aggregator website Book Marks, based on 42 book reviews from mainstream literary critics. The novel debuted at number one on The New York Times fiction best-seller list for the week ending September 28, 2019. The novel was selected by Oprah Winfrey as the first book for the revival of her Oprah's Book Club on Apple TV+. She called it "one of the best books I have ever read in my entire life. Right up there in the Top 5."
Publishers Weekly gave the novel a rave review, writing, "In prose that sings and imagination that soars, Coates further cements himself as one of this generation's most important writers, tackling one of America's oldest and darkest periods with grace and inventiveness. This is bold, dazzling, and not to be missed." David Fear of Rolling Stone gave the novel a rave review, saying it exceeded expectations for a debut novel and writing, "What's most powerful is the way Coates enlists his notions of the fantastic, as well as his fluid prose, to probe a wound that never seems to heal. There’s an urgency to his remembrance of things past that brims with authenticity, testifying to centuries of bone-deep pain. It makes The Water Dancer feel timeless and instantly canon-worthy." Dwight Garner of The New York Times gave the novel a positive review, calling it "a jeroboam of a book, a crowd-pleasing exercise in breakneck and often occult storytelling that tonally resembles the work of Stephen King as much as it does the work of Toni Morrison, Colson Whitehead and the touchstone African-American science-fiction writer Octavia Butler." Kirkus Reviews gave the novel a favorable review, but felt it was "less intensely realized" than Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad (2015).
Constance Grady of Vox praised the "clarity of Coates's ideas and the poetry of his language" but largely panned the novel as a "mess" with monotonous characters and lacking a strong plot development to make up for it. She criticized the movement between the plot-driven and allegorical storytelling modes as "whiplash-inducing". Shah Tazrian Ashrafi of The Daily Star, while complimenting its "lyrical prose", felt that the novel "left craving more action and high-geared moments of grief, suspense, climax, and character development." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Water_Dancer |
This elegant, evocative tale of suspense burrows straight to the heart of our cultural true crime fixation through an intense emotional dance between two seemingly different women ...
More Than You’ll Ever Know
has all the ingredients necessary for a good thriller. Gutierrez writes with an instinctive understanding of the scaffolding necessary to keep readers turning the pages, and the narrative flies by as the dramatic and emotional tensions in both women’s lives ratchet up ... Beyond the novel’s well-executed, suspenseful structure, Gutierrez also clearly understands her characters, where they’ve come from and what they want and need ... Gutierrez has crafted detailed, vulnerable portraits of women searching for clues to their own survival. In the process, she unearths some truly compelling insights about our cultural obsession with true crime.
Kim Michele Richardson
Rave
BookPage
The undeniable warmth that permeates Kim Michele Richardson’s fiction is rooted in a love for her home state of Kentucky, her characters and, it seems, the art of writing itself. Her narratives are immersive exercises in character development and world building that are wholly capable of enveloping readers, pulling us deeper with each page until we are happily lost ...
The Book Woman’s Daughter
...does this from the very beginning ... Throughout
The Book Woman’s Daughter
, Richardson pushes Honey forward into new states of evolution, desire, grit and spirit while constructing a beautiful vision of 1950s Appalachia in all its natural splendor and complicated humanity.
Isaac Fellman
Rave
BookPage
There’s a magic to Isaac Fellman’s fiction, born of his depth of perception, precise prose and straightforward sense of expression. In his second novel,
Dead Collections
, his characters’ earnestness and warmth make even the darkest moments beautiful, in a way that will remind the reader of the work of Anne Rice and Stephen Graham Jones ... Through a combination of Sol’s incisive narration, message board entries, script books and other formalist flights of experimentation, Fellman lays out Sol’s and Elsie’s parallel journeys with propulsive, intense focus. The prose unfolds with notable determination, and there’s not a single wasted word, even when Fellman plays with format and frame of reference ... or the way Elsie uses light to mimic the experience of daylight for her vampire friend, Fellman’s style is vivid, specific and deeply evocative. On a sentence level,
Dead Collections
is a sensual, tactile work, and when combined with Fellman’s confident grasp of his characters, it becomes a wonderful, bittersweet journey in which you may get happily lost.
John Darnielle
Rave
BookPage
Darnielle’s stories, whether on the page or set to music have a tendency to transcend easy classification and simple genre labels. And yet there’s always a clarity to them, a feeling that the creator’s mind and heart are at work in tandem. With
Devil House
, his extraordinarily ambitious third novel, Darnielle proves his versatility yet again. This remarkable shapeshifter of a tale changes form, perspective and even relative truth as it pleases, but never loses its voice ...
Devil House
never feels like a book steeped in gimmicks, because Darnielle steers his dark vessel with dexterity, wit and stunning inventiveness. This novel will lure in true crime fans and readers of experimental fiction alike, then blow them all away with its determined exploration of the nature of truth and what we want to hear versus what we need to hear. It’s a triumph from an always exciting storyteller.
Louise Erdrich
Rave
BookPage
Erdrich’s latest novel unfolds over the course of one tumultuous year, and its persistent search for meaning reveals astonishing, sublime depths ... her narrative never loses its grip. As vast as its scope may be,
The Sentence
doesn’t feel overstuffed because Erdrich roots it in Tookie’s own longings, beliefs and challenges ... Erdrich’s prose, layered with unforgettable flourishes of detail—from the mesmeric spinning of a ceiling fan to the quest for the perfect soup—enhances and deepens this growing sense of a larger, collective haunting ... an imaginative, boldly honest exploration of our ever-evolving search for truth in the stories we both consume and create. It’s a staggering addition to Erdrich’s already impressive body of work.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Rave
BookPage
Silvia Moreno-Garcia has a knack for re-envisioning familiar, even comforting genre territory in vital new ways ... As always, Moreno-Garcia couches all her riffs on genre conventions within a deeply ingrained sense of character. Before we can fully grasp the many angles of the tangled, noir-tinged web she’s weaving, we must first get to know Maite and Elvis and their different forms of ache and longing. Through precise, accessible yet poetic prose, these characters instantly come alive ... another triumph for one of genre fiction’s brightest voices, a book that will keep you up late into the night.
Charlotte McConaghy
Rave
BookPage
Intense, emotional and rich with beautifully rendered prose, McConaghy’s novel is a powerful meditation on humanity, nature and the often frightening animalistic impulses lurking within us all ... Her prose never feels overwhelmed or even particularly hurried. There’s a density of meaning to her language, filling every paragraph with poignant, poetic life, and it’s clear even in the opening chapters that she’s mastered this world and these characters ...
Once There Were Wolves
is another triumph for a rising fiction star, offering an intensely realized world for readers to get lost in.
Jason Mott
Rave
BookPage
There’s an intimacy to Jason Mott’s fiction, retained even when the scope of his narrative widens. But even by these standards, his fourth novel is a uniquely tight, personal story that digs into deeply emotional territory. Through two interwoven storylines unfolding in a witty, often devastatingly incisive style,
Hell of a Book
is a journey into the heart of a very particular American experience, one that far too many don’t live to tell ... You may think you see where these two stories are headed, where they will converge and knit together, and what they will have to say at the end, but you don’t. And even if you could, Mott’s bittersweet, remarkably nimble novel would still keep you turning the pages ... a masterwork of balance, as Mott navigates the two narratives and their delicate tonal distinctions. A surrealist feast of imagination that’s brimming with very real horrors, frustrations and sorrows, it can break your heart and make you laugh out loud at the same time, often on the same page. This is an achievement of American fiction that rises to meet this particular moment with charm, wisdom and truth.
Nana Nkweti
Rave
BookPage
... a cluster of 10 dazzling stories that are as diverse as they are vibrant ... Nkweti ensures that no two tales are alike, regardless of their thematic connective tissue ... Even beyond the variety of subject matter, Nkweti displays her virtuosity and elasticity through her prose. With the ease of a master, she shifts between points of view, between American and African slang, and between the straightforward and the avant-garde. Each story offers not only a different subject but also a different approach, a new plan of narrative attack to conquer each emotional landscape. The result is an intense, sweeping and altogether stunning reading experience.
Rivers Solomon
Rave
BookPage
a story you simply won’t see coming. You might think you’ve figured out the pillars of its structure after a few chapters, or come to truly understand its protagonist after walking a few dozen pages with her, but to read this powerful, moving and terrifying novel is to enter into a constant state of change. The story envelops you slowly, like a cocoon, wrapping you in its ever-increasing depth and heart until you emerge, at the end, transformed ... As Vern gradually awakens to the wider world and its wonders and terrors, Solomon charts her journey through prose that is both economical and fiercely emotional. What’s most striking is the way in which Solomon captures Vern’s creeping, often frightening realization that the world is altogether more complex and monstrous than she once thought ... Full of horror, love and incisive observation,
Sorrowland
is so perfectly plotted that readers won’t be able to predict what’s to come any better than Vern can. It’s a truly powerful piece of storytelling.
Constance Sayers
Positive
BookPage
When a story is set in an invented universe, the line its author must walk is a bit more treacherous than when a tale is set in a recognizable \'real\' world. In
The Ladies of the Secret Circus
, Constance Sayers proves she can walk that line with grace and power ... The novel’s massive network of connections—tactile and ethereal, physical and mystical—makes for a luxurious reading experience, like a rich tapestry.
The Ladies of the Secret Circus
is a book to get lost in, not just because of the fantasy elements that layer it with intrigue but also because of the emotional connections that tie it all together. Through beautifully orchestrated prose and careful, confident pacing, Sayers constructs a story that feels like sitting down with an older relative and slowly, over hours, getting all the family secrets in one juicy, enchanted package.
Sarah Penner
Positive
BookPage
... spellbinding ... What’s most striking about
The Lost Apothecary
is not how expertly Penner braids the three strands of her story together, though the structure and pacing are certainly well done. What is most admirable is that, as she leaps between first-person perspectives—including two women who are often reflecting on the exact same events—the sense of character never once falters. Their presences and voices are distinct, even as they’re bound by an emotional link that is clear to the reader (though not always clear to the characters). There’s a powerful unity to this story, making it nimble yet sturdy, light yet satiating ... Like in a well-brewed potion, all the ingredients have been given exactly the right level of care and time, and the result is a novel that simply overwhelms with its delicate spell.
Ashley Audrain
Rave
BookPage
In the hands of the right storyteller, even the most compact novels can be works of great complexity ... a dazzling exercise in both economy of language and vividness of expression. Audrain’s grasp of Blythe’s inner life—her fears, her hopes, the details that linger in her mind— is so precise and mature that we get lost in this woman’s often troubling world. That feeling propels the novel forward at a blistering pace ... spellbinding ...
The Push
announces Audrain as a sophisticated, compelling writer, perfect for fans of thrillers and intimate family dramas alike.
Dantiel W. Moniz
Rave
BookPage
Often the most powerful elements of fiction are the emotional truths mined from the most difficult experiences ...
Milk Blood Heat
is thoroughly tethered to this kind of emotional truth. Throughout 11 short stories—all set in Florida, all focusing on transformative experiences in the lives of women—Moniz weaves tales that are as profound as they are unnerving, as moving as they are surprising ... Each of the stories in this collection is anchored by Moniz’s gorgeous, precise prose ... Though they share certain geographic and thematic connections, the tales are quite diverse in their perspectives and casts. What unites them, and what keeps us turning the pages through scenes of tragedy and self-discovery, rebellion and reconciliation, trauma and agency, is the singular voice guiding each character. In nearly every paragraph, Moniz unfurls some new observation that nestles down in your brain and sits, steeping like tea leaves, until each story has formed a cohesive, powerful emotional experience. It’s a magical sensation that reveals astonishing talent ... a slim but mighty volume of short fiction, one that announces Moniz as a transfixing voice capable of limning often staggering emotional truths.
Michael Christie
Rave
Bookpage
...with the expert, deft hands of a seasoned carpenter, author Michael Christie carefully and methodically pieces together a story as intricate as the rings within a tree. The result is a deeply compelling novel of family and memory ...Christie creates a sense of poetic, organic symmetry through rich characters and evocative, almost tactile descriptions. Even if readers are sad to leave Jake’s storyline in order to get to know her family, they may become just as captivated by her grandmother, Willow, and the ancestors that come before her ... The structure provides a captivating spine for Greenwood, but what stands out most by the end is the way in which Christie has been able to evoke and give voice to the way the cumulative effect of time and memory weighs on us all in ways both uplifting and terrifying. Greenwood is a towering, profound novel about the things that endure even as the world seems to be moving on.
Jess Kidd
Positive
BookPage
Kidd has woven a spellbinding alternate version of Victorian London that is both recognizable and like getting lost in some mist-shrouded parallel world only spoken of in myths. It is into this version of London, where tattooed ghosts lurk near their own gravestones and seven-foot-tall housekeepers spend their idle time reading potboiler fiction, that Kidd drops Bridie Devine, a private detective with such distinctive style and intense charisma that we fall in love with her immediately ... Equal parts historical thriller and fabulist phantasm, Things in Jars is instantly compelling, but what sets it apart is the prose. There’s a playful, lithe familiarity to it as Kidd dances across delightfully apt phrases like a master. Even as the novel sweeps you up in its narrative, it also sweeps you up in its sentence-by-sentence construction, making it both a whirlwind read and a novel you could happily get lost in for weeks, dissecting every paragraph ... the kind of lavish, elegant genre treat that makes you wish Kidd would churn out a new Bridie Devine mystery every three years until the end of time.
Simon Jimenez
Rave
BookPage
The best science fiction stories create a bridge between ambitious, precisely calculated genre concepts and the deep, emotional truths that unite us all. Keeping the balance between intricate sci-fi backdrops and delicate matters of the heart is a high-wire act that only succeeds with tremendous care, passion and narrative grace. In his debut novel,
The Vanished Birds
, Simon Jimenez has announced himself as a graceful, spellbinding storyteller with the gifts to pull it off ... The book never fails to deliver the science fiction goods, and fans of high-concept leaps will be satisfied, but the book’s emotional core is what makes it fly ...
The Vanished Birds
strikes a breathless balance between the conceptually dazzling and the emotionally resonant, and it’s in that balance that a bright new voice in genre fiction is born.
Katy Simpson Smith
Positive
BookPage
... a rare book whose ambition is matched by its craft and emotional weight. Combining the gravity of history with the tribulations of faith and the wit and wisdom of Satan himself, this is a book that somehow retains its power even as it hops across time to tell four very different stories that nonetheless share a common, human heart ... There’s no weak link here, no character you’d rather leave out of this journey, because Smith’s prose is so precise and evocative that each narrative feels as precious as a holy relic ... Then there’s the cutting, heartbroken voice of Satan interjecting into each narrative, tying them all together with his own perception of human history and his own particularly bittersweet relationship with God ... The result of all these different threads is an exquisite tapestry of history, religion and heartbreak that’s perfect for historical fiction and fabulism fans alike.
Alice Hoffman
Rave
BookPage
Alice Hoffman is a brilliant weaver of magic and the mundane ... In her hands, a story we think we know, from a time we think we’ve extracted every possible detail, can become a soulful new voyage into the heart of the human condition ... a spellbinding tale of love, loss and what it means to endure ... In beautifully precise prose, Hoffman chronicles the experiences of these characters and those whose lives they touch along the way ... Though Nazi-occupied France is an endlessly compelling place to many readers, Hoffman never takes her historical setting for granted. Rather than leaving us to lean on what we think we know, she weaves a fully realized vision of the hidden parts of history, chronicling the stories of people who slipped through the cracks on their way to freedom and the emotional toll that freedom took ... Page by page, paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence,
The World That We Knew
presents a breathtaking, deeply emotional odyssey through the shadows of a dimming world while never failing to convince us that there is light somewhere at the end of it all. This book feels destined to become a high point in an already stellar career.
Salman Rushdie
Rave
BookPage
Evoking [a] sense of universality becomes...difficult when you’re telling a story that’s an open homage to one of the most famous and influential works of literature in human history, but in his insightful and wickedly funny way, Salman Rushdie pulls it off with
Quichotte
... By structuring
Quichotte
as a narrative within a narrative, [Rushdie\'s] given himself an inventive way to say something about a world obsessed with everything from reality television to hacktivism.
Quichotte
is a story of breathtaking intellectual scope, and yet it never feels too weighty or self-serious. Like Cervantes, Rushdie is able to balance his commentary with a voice full of tragicomic fervor, which makes the novel a thrilling adventure on a sentence-by-sentence level and another triumph for Rushdie.
Zach Powers
Rave
BookPage
Perhaps the greatest success of the novel is Powers’ ability to get inside Leonid’s head, to paint a portrait of the psychological whiplash he’s endured throughout his life ... Powers is unafraid to probe the confounding, often darkly comic answers to these questions, even if the answers are sometimes frustratingly uncertain. This attention to emotional detail, combined with a powerful supporting cast and a masterful sense of historical table-setting, makes
First Cosmic Velocity
a delightfully complex page-turner for space enthusiasts and fans of alternate histories. You will never look at the space race the same way again.
Chuck Wendig
Rave
BookPage
[Wendig\'s] ability to juggle so many fully realized characters is impressive, but even more so is the astonishing power
Wanderers
commands in conveying what it would actually feel like if this happened in the America we live in now, complicated by deep ideological divides, disinformation and the constant chatter of social media. All of these elements work together, often in surprising ways, to create a sense of terrifying plausibility and compelling verisimilitude. The true success of
Wanderers
, though, is not just in its ability to show us the grim scenarios that could play out across a divided nation; it’s in its heart. Whether he’s writing about rage or faith or the faintest glimmer of light, Wendig brings a sincerity and emotional weight to his prose. That’s why the scariest parts of
Wanderers
work, but it’s also why the most hopeful ones do, too.
Kristen Arnett
Rave
BookPage
... an astonishing debut novel that’s both a new entry in the long history of great fiction about grief and a darkly comic flight of brilliance that transports the reader to a familiar yet alien world of frozen moments and dysfunctional love ... Arnett’s precise, wickedly witty prose paints a portrait of a searcher, of a woman longing for what came before even if she’s no longer entirely sure what she liked about it, even as she attempts to let something new into her life. It all comes together in a bold, dark and profound comic novel about the nature of love, loss and invention ... announces Arnett as one of the most promising rising novelists writing today.
Ted Chiang
Rave
BookPage
Reading a Ted Chiang anthology is an experience that slowly claims little corners of your brain until eventually your whole head is devoted to it ... each tale is so compelling and complex ... One after another, Chiang’s stories claim their place in your mind until you’re completely swept up in his provocative and at times even charming world ... Each story is a carefully considered, finely honed machine designed to entertain, but this collection also forces you to look at things like your smartphone or your pet with new eyes. What makes
Exhalation
particularly brilliant is that not one of the stories feels like it’s designed to be thought-provoking in a stilted, academic way ... a must-read.
G. Willow Wilson
Rave
BookPage
With her debut novel,
Alif the Unseen
, G. Willow Wilson announced herself as a powerful new voice in the realm of speculative fiction. With her new novel,
The Bird King
, she has cemented her place as one of the brightest lights of fantasy storytelling ... Wilson’s tale unfolds with all the grace and swiftness of a classic magical adventure, with strange encounters and new lands waiting with each turn of the page. There’s a familiarity, a lived-in quality, to the prose and sense of character that evokes an almost fairy-tale sensibility, but then Wilson digs deeper, into something as timeless as a myth but much more intimate. As it spreads out before the reader like a lavish tapestry, Wilson’s story becomes a gorgeous, ambitious meditation on faith, platonic love, magic and even storytelling itself, with a trio of unforgettable personalities serving as its beating, endlessly vital heart ... a triumph—immersive in historical detail and yet, in many ways, it could have happened yesterday. Wilson has once again proven that she’s one of the best fantasy writers working today, with a book that’s just waiting for readers to get happily lost in its pages.
Dave Eggers
Positive
BookPage
\"
The Parade
, the latest compelling tale from Dave Eggers, is a short book, but not at the expense of anything it needs to function as a taut, direct and lean narrative. There’s not an ounce of fat on this book, and that makes it both inviting and the kind of novel that will linger in your brain for hours, even days, after you’ve read it ... The novel is sparse, free of proper names and major geographic and political details because it doesn’t need them. In deliberate, measured prose, Eggers marches his characters down the road toward uncertainty, building tension and conflict until the novel’s complex and thoughtful climax. The purposeful vagueness makes the novel feel timeless and universal, while Eggers’ way of pouring on the emotional details when it really counts makes it haunting.
The Parade
is a tight, thrilling, brisk read that will make you ponder your place in the world.\
Marlon James
Rave
BookPage
\"James has once again delivered something that must be read to be believed, a majestic novel full of unforgettable characters, gorgeous prose and vivid adventures ...
Black Leopard, Red Wolf
heralds the arrival of one of fantasy’s next great sagas and reaffirms James as one of the greatest storytellers of his generation.\
Daisy Johnson
Rave
BookPage
\"The best retellings of myths and legends create an atmosphere like a dreamscape, faintly familiar in a way you can’t quite place...
Everything Under
, Daisy Johnson’s spellbinding debut novel, is a magical book in exactly that way ...
Everything Under
is, first and foremost, a novel of exquisite, heartbreakingly beautiful prose. Johnson leaps confidently and nimbly between present and past, switching narrative perspectives like a master and weaving gorgeous, spooky imagery ... This brief, artful novel announces Johnson as a gifted storyteller who’s here to stay, and you’ll be craving the next book by the time you’re done.\
Signe Pike
Rave
BookPage
The Lost Queen
...is the rare historical epic that manages to be truly sweeping and yet always intense and personal—at once a romance, a story of faith, a story of war and a story of family without ever sacrificing one element to focus on another. The romance does not cancel out the palace intrigue, the faith does not cancel out the magic, and the war does not cancel out the intimate moments of discovery and history. It’s all there at once, each element as rich as any other ... Languoreth’s narration, coupled with the sense that we get to discover the intrigues and mysteries of her world along with her as she ages, is the key to the novel’s success. Pike strikes the right balance of immersive historical detail and sincere emotional resonance, and it never falters throughout the book. By the end, you feel happily lost in this mist-shrouded place in history, and you only wish you could stay there longer.
Haruki Murakami, Trans. by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen
Rave
BookPage
Like all of Haruki Murakami’s stories,
Killing Commendatore
is vast, ambitious and composed of seemingly disparate layers that somehow all find a way to link together ... it’s another brilliant journey through the mind of one of our greatest living storytellers ... One of Murakami’s most effective techniques is his economy of language, which creates a constant juxtaposition of extraordinary events and deceptively simple, unhurried prose ... a joyously unpredictable novel, cracking itself open one piece at a time like an ancient puzzle box, and Murakami’s careful, masterful style assures the reader that it’s worthwhile to get happily lost inside.
Caitlin Moran
Positive
BookPage
Caitlin Moran has a gift—in both short- and long-form writing, in both fiction and nonfiction—that hits like magic when it lands in the lap of the right reader. It’s a rare, mesmerizing talent ...
How to Be Famous
lives or dies based on Moran’s ability to render Dolly as an enchanting, vulnerable and hilarious guide through the mid-1990s London music scene, and Dolly’s charm immediately jumps off the page ... [Moran\'s] ambition, like Dolly’s, is to weave into this tale a kind of feminist manifesto ... She succeeds throughout but keeps you waiting for the final, unforgettable exclamation point at the book’s hysterical climax.
Bernard Cornwell
Rave
BookPage
Bernard Cornwell is well versed in historical writing — he’s perhaps the living king of the genre at this point — but this is Shakespeare we’re talking about. It’s intimidating territory, and not every novelist can do it well ... With his usual knack for detail and characterization, Cornwell plunges fearlessly into Shakespearean England for his latest novel ... The first thing readers will notice in
Fools and Mortals
, as they will in Cornwell’s
The Last Kingdom
, is the voice. Richard tells his own story, and as crafted by Cornwell’s skilled hands, he tells it beautifully. Right away, there’s a sense of the Shakespearean balance of wit and drama ...Cornwell places us in proximity to history we know and then brushes greater depth and detail into the personal story he’s trying to convey ...a riveting novel driven by a distinctive voice that’s sure to hook you.
Roddy Doyle
Rave
BookPage
His stories, from short fiction to novels, are tightly wound coils of energy, humor and insight, waiting to spring on us.
Smile
is another stellar example of Doyle’s brand of dense, kinetic storytelling. In just over 200 pages, Doyle manages to tell us something startling, funny and strange about the nature of human tragedy and pain ... Doyle has a particular talent for humor and dialogue, but he also has the rare quality of being able to balance an economy of language with a dense sense of perception. Not a word is wasted here, and there aren’t many to waste. This is a gift, and it’s one Doyle harnesses with particular power in
Smile
. This drives the book at an almost fever pitch, practically daring you to turn each page and see what kind of incisive character wisdom he’s about to impart next. By the end, even if you think you know what’s coming, you will be dumbstruck by the storytelling prowess at work.
Smile
is a brief, brilliant, frenzied reading experience that only Roddy Doyle could deliver.
John Boyne
Rave
BookPage
The Absolutist
might be his most intimate story yet—a journey inside the mind of a man who’s seen the horror of war, and the tale of his quest to somehow find peace in the lonely aftermath ... Tristan bears the scars of war on his body, but the real reason for his journey is the scars on his heart. The world knows only that Tristan and Will were friends, and how Will officially met his end ...is surprisingly slim. Boyne conveys the period accurately and elegantly, but the characters—specifically Tristan, who narrates—are the stars ... This is a different kind of journey into the darkness of war, told by a gifted, powerful novelist, and the result is a book with an often staggering emotional punch.
Stephen King & Owen King
Rave
BookPage
...a triumph of two voices blending wonderfully to take us into a dark and all-too-real dream ...
Sleeping Beauties
traffics in some very potent themes, from the obvious question of what an all-male society would devolve into to less obvious concerns like the politics of a women’s prison and the evolution of sexuality during the aging process. None of these issues, though, are dealt with cheaply or crudely. The book wields the best attributes of each author—Stephen’s ability to ratchet up tension, Owen’s wit and their joint gifts for character detail—with a deftness that makes it feel like the work of a single hybrid imagination. In the authors’ hands, the themes and characters of
Sleeping Beauties
become powerful fictional case studies, holding the mirror up to our own powder keg of a society in unforgettable and often unnerving ways.
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Introduction to the CourseandIntroduction to the Novel Dr. SarwetRasul
Introduction to the Course Course Overview: • The novel course is mainly concerned with the English novel from the eighteenth and the nineteenth century which is rich in diversity, creativity and popular appeal. • It explores the rise of English Novel as an essential literary genre. • It starts with an introduction to the novel, its origin and definition. It includes elements of the novel, its development and aspects or elements of the novel. • The course includes the works of major novelists of the era namely Henry Fielding, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Thomas Hardy. • Thus, the first novel that is covered in the course is the cheerful moralistic writing of Henry Fielding “Joseph Andrews”. This leads us to explore the perfection of the novel in Jane Austin’s “Emma”. Then “Great Expectations” by the moralist and reformist Charles Dickens is critically examined. Finally, the perennial work of Thomas Hardy “Tess of the d’Urberville” written towards the end of the 19thcentury is explored.
Aim of the Course: • The main aim of this course is to make students enjoy and appreciate the structure and content of the selected novels by reading between lines with a critical eye, to develop in them the ability of textual analysis and critical interpretation of the English novel in the wider socio- cultural and philosophical context. Objectives of the Course: • To introduce each of the selected novels as a reading activity for interpretation and analysis • To enable the students to observe the chronological development in the genre of novel • To make the students comprehend the structural and thematic aspects of the English Novel
Today’s Session • Introduction to the course • Aim and objectives of the course • Definitions of novel • Novel as a genre • Unique qualities or characteristics of noel as a genre • History and Origin of (English) Novel • Types of Novel
GENERAL PARAMETERS OF THE NOVEL • GENRE: Fiction (Narrative) • STYLE: Prose • LENGTH: Extended
DEFINITIONS… “A book length story in prose, whose author tries to create a sense that, while we read, we experience actual life.” By X. J. Kennedy “An extended fictional narrative, usually written in prose.” Anonymous
DEFINITIONS… “An imaginary work in prose of a considerable length, which presentsasreal certain characters living in a given environment and describes their attitudes, fate, and adventures.” By Percy Lubbock “The novel is like a symphony In that the closing movement Echoes and resounds with all that has gone before…”’By John Gardner
We can notice all the different ways in which one can define the novel. The most important literary genre, novels are basically just products of writers’ imaginations. • These definitions emphasize various aspects of novel such as real and life-like characters, rising of conflicts and presentation of themes etc. • The universal idea that the novel should be believable is one of the unique qualities of the novel and explains its popularity as a literary form.
The novel has various unique qualities or characteristics that distinguish it from other types of prose.
Length • The first quality of a novel is its length. Although there are no definite rules on the subject of length, it is generally agreed among writers and publishers that the length of the narrative must be good enough, generally more than 100 pages. • If it is less than that, it is usually referred to as a novella, such as Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Emphasis on the Character • Another quality of a novel is its emphasis on the character or characters in the story. • Since a novel is longer than a short story, the length of a novel allows the author to give the reader a much fuller description of the characters and to introduce more than one conflict. Therefore, the reader can better understand the character’s motives for action or inaction, relationships with others, and their own personal feelings, dreams and fears.
Structure: Structurally more complicated • A novel has more than one theme, conflict, point of view or plot.
Plot • The plot is what happens in the story. • The plot is what happens in the story. This diagram shows common plot structure, which is a lot like a rollercoaster that climbs slowly up a big hill and then quickly drops down at a sharp angle. A story begins with the exposition, action rises to a climax, or high point in a work, and then falls to a resolution or dénouement. climax exposition Resolution
Plot of novels: The Conflict • In early novels plots centered on three different conflicts. These three major conflicts all dealt with how the individual viewed himself or herself in relation to society, to the self, and to other individuals. • Person versus society • Person versus self • Person versus person
Setting • Where and when a story takes place • Time of day or year • Geographical location • Climate or weather • Immediate surroundings of character • Purpose of Setting: • Setting serves many purposes in a story such as a backdrop, supporting or antagonistic role etc.
Theme • Theme is the central idea in a literary work which serves to unify the story. It is what the author has to say about death, love, hope, courage, morality, society, etc. Every element of the novel: plot, point of view, setting and character contribute to the theme.
Character • Character: person in a literary work • Main character: the protagonist • Character in direct conflict with the protagonist: the antagonist
Plot explores characters in conflict to understand our own humanity • Another quality of a novel is the complexity of plot. Unlike the short story, a novel will often have more than one major conflict within the plot. Often the author is interested in developing a plot in which the main goal is for the character to better understand his or her own humanity or place in society. The conflict can be internal or external.
Point of View in a Novel • Author’s choice of narrator for a story • A story can be told in many different ways • Point of view refers to the author’s choice of narrator for a story. A story can be told in many different ways. Novels are unique in that they allow for many different views of an event whereas, in short stories there is usually only one view. • In first-person point of view, the narrator is a character in the story. The narrator, or the one telling the story, may or may not be reliable in first person narratives because the narrator is a character within the story and is likely not entirely objective. • Second-person point of view directly addresses the audience with the use of the pronoun “you.” Second-person point of view pulls us into the story by making us one of its characters. • With third person point of view, the narrator is not a character in the story and is basically “outside looking in.” Third person point of view can be written in a variety of ways. In Third Person Limited, the narrator is limited to what one character knows or observes. With Third Person Multiple Viewpoints, the narrator has access to the view of more than one character. Finally, in Third Person Omniscient, the narrator is all-knowing and has access to characters’ thoughts, feelings, and motivations.
Novel and Verisimilitude • Novel is a semblance of truth. • It has recognizable settings and characters in real time. • According to Hazlitt it is “the close imitation of men and manners… the very texture of society as it really exists.” • The novel emerged when authors fused adventure and romance with verisimilitude and heroes that were not supermen but ordinary people, often, insignificant people.
NOVEL 50,000 words or more Many characters Complex story Deeper understanding of life or individuals SHORT STORY 5,000 words or less Few or one character Focuses on one event Better understanding of an event or character Novel Compared to the Short Story
This comparison chart may make it easier to see the differences between two common forms of storytelling—the novel and the short story. Because novels are lengthier than short stories, novels feature additional characters, more complex plots and a deeper exploration of life or characters within the text. The short story, in contrast, focuses on one character, one major conflict or event and provides a simple understanding of the main character or event instead of the “bigger picture” of man’s place in society, multi-faceted characters or an extended period of time in characters’ lives. Just think:
History of the Novel • Oral telling of myths, history, and stories • Written storytelling in the form of the epic • Written prose fiction concerned with adventure known as the romance. (The French word for the novel is roman) • Written prose fiction concerned with reality or actual life. (The English word for new is novel)
How did the novel get its start? • Early peoples depended on the oral tradition to pass their histories, beliefs and stories from one generation to the next. • Various cultures wrote epics, which are long narrative poems such as Beowulf or The Odyssey. Next, consider romances as a literary genre—not the common, modern definition of romance, which means love affair or romantic attraction. • Romances were essentially comprised of a series of adventures and included ideas like Authurian legend and knighthood. Prior to the mid-18th century, the novel as a common, accepted form of prose actually did not exist. • Most people were illiterate, and without a middle-class, there really wasn’t a market for the novel. The affluent were more interested in biographies, journals, memoirs and historical texts. The members of the working-class were poor and illiterate. Social and economic changes were needed to create a market for the novel.
Narrative Precursors to the Novel • Heroic EpicsGilgamesh, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Mahabharata, Valmiki’sRamayana, Virgil’s Aeneid, Beowulf, The Song of Roland • Ancient Greek and Roman Romances and NovelsAn Ephesian Tale and Chaereas and Callirhoe, Petronius’s, Satyricon, Apuleius’s The Golden Ass • Oriental Frame TalesThe Jataka, A Thousand and One Nights • Irish and Icelandic SagasThe TainboCuailinge, Njal’s Saga
Narrative Precursors to the Novel • Medieval European RomancesArthurian tales culminating in Malory’s MorteDarthur • Elizabethan Prose FictionGascoigne’s The Adventure of Master F. J.,Lyly’sEuphues, Greene’s Pandosto: The Triumph of Time, Nashe’sThe Unfortunate Traveller,Deloney’sJackof Newbury • Travel AdventuresMarco Polo, IbnBatuta, More’sUtopia, Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Voltaire’s Candide • NovelleBoccaccio’s Decameron, Margurerite de Navarre’s Heptameron • Moral TalesBunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progess, Johnson’s Rasselas
The Industrial Revolution • Mid 18th Century England • Urban life • Growth of industry • Birth of new “middle class”
Industrial Revolution and Social Changes: • These social and economic changes occurred as a result of the Industrial Revolution. The colonization of the Americas gave England an abundance of raw materials, which led to the creation of a merchant class, members of which sought their success in the profit made from trading goods. Technological Advancement: • Technological changes, such as new machinery, defined what we now call the Industrial Revolution. With it came the growth of cities and a change in the entire social, political and economic structure in England. From the creation of industry, a new social and economic class of people emerged—the middle class. They gained their wealth through the ownership of factories and the institutions that supported them. Thus, the social issues of old money vs. new money emerged.
The Rise of the English Novel • The Restoration of the monarchy (1660) in England after the Puritan Commonwealth (1649-1660) encouraged an outpouring of secular literature • Appearance of periodical literature: journals and newspapers • Literary Criticism • Character Sketches • Political Discussion • Philosophical Ideas • Increased leisure time for middle class: Coffee House and Salon society • Growing audience of literate women also added to the strength of the new genre of novel
Birth of the Novel New market for the novel by 1700s! Spending money available for entertainment Increase in the number of people able to read More leisure time available Creation Of The Middle Class
Change in Reading Habits • Before the emergence of novel, people primarily read plays, poetry, essays and religious texts • With the development of the novel, the longest form of prose writing was developed. The new middle class found themselves with the required education, wealth and time to enjoy this new form of entertainment. • As now there were larger numbers of literate people who had money to spend on books, who were the members of the emerging middle class, a new market was created in which the novel was able to flourish.
Novel as a Representative Genre: Concerned with real problems and real situations of Middle Class • We are talking of the times when a traditional conservative social pattern was followed. • Generally, men pursued careers in law or in the military or in business but women were expected to marry ahead of one’s class to improve her place in society. Jane Austin’s works show this. • As for a real picture of what daily life in industrial England was like, Charles Dickens’ Hard Times and Great Expectations. Hard Times presentsthe situations that factory workers faced: long work hours, extremely low wages, child workers, and very dangerous working conditions. Dickens’ goal was to alert the middle and upper classes to the inhumanity—the real problems and situations—that the lower classes endured.
Tracing the History of Novel: Don Quixoteby Cervantes (1547-1616) • First European novel: part I - 1605; part II - 1615 • A psychological portrait of a mid-life crisis • Satirizes medieval romances, incorporates pastoral, picaresque, social and religious commentary • What is the nature of reality? • How does one create a life?
Defoe The Founder of the Modern English Novel • Daniel Defoe: Master of plain prose and powerful narrative • Wrote Robinson Crusoe (1719): This is a travel adventure. • Moll Flanders (1722): This is a Picaresque novel. • Born 1660 • Died 1731 • Established a “middle class” perspective • Most will agree, however, that Daniel Defoe and his novel Robinson Crusoe and later Moll Flanders actually set the structure and themes of the novel. Born in 1660 as a butcher’s son, Defoe soon rose above the expectations of social class by the encouragement of his nonconformist father and was sent to Charles Morton’s Academy in London for a “proper education.” His father intended for him to enter the ministry just as many educated people did in those days, but Defoe embarked on a career as a journalist. Ultimately, Defoe’s creation of believable characters and realistic situations enabled him to meet readers’ demands, thereby becoming the founder of the modern English novel.
The First Novels • Don Quixote ( Spain, 1605-15) by Miguel de Cervantes • The Princess of Cleves (France, 1678) by Madame de Lafayette • Love Letters between a Nobleman and His Sister (England, 1683)and Oroonoko(1688)by AphraBehn • Robinson Crusoe (England, 1719) , Moll Flanders (1722) and A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) by Daniel DeFoe • Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (England, 1740-1742) by Samuel Richardson • Joseph Andrews (England, 1742) and Tom Jones (1746)by Henry Fielding
Picaresque Epistolary Sentimental Gothic Historical Psychological Realistic/Naturalistic Regional Social Adventure Mystery Science Fiction Magical Realism Types of Novels
Picaresque Novels • Derives from Spanish picaro: a rogue • A usually autobiographical chronicle of a rascal’s travels and adventures as s/he makes his/her way through the world more by wits than industry • Episodic, loose structure • Highly realistic: detailed description and uninhibited expression • Satire of social classes
Epistolary Novels • Novels in which the narrative is told in letters by one or more of the characters • Allows author to present feelings and reactions of characters, brings immediacy to the plot, allows multiple points of view • Psychological realism
Pamela (1740) and Clarissa (1747-48) Epistolary Sentimental Morality tale: Servant resisting seduction by her employer Fathers of the English Novel Samuel Richardson1689-1761
Shamela(1741) • Joseph Andrews (1742), and • Tom Jones (1749) • Picaresque protagonists • “comic epic in prose” • Parody of Richardson Henry Fielding 1707-1754
Jane Austen and the Novel of Manners • Novels dominated by the customs, manners, conventional behavior and habits of a particular social class • Often concerned with courtship and marriage • Realistic and sometimes satiric • Focus on domestic society rather than the larger world
Gothic Novels • Novels characterized by magic, mystery and horror • Exotic settings – medieval, Oriental, etc. • Originated with Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto (1764)
Novels of Sentiment • Novels in which the characters, and thus the readers, have a heightened emotional response to events • Connected to emerging Romantic movement • Laurence Sterne (1713-1768): TristamShandy(1760-67) • The Brontës: Anne BrontëAgnes Grey (1847) Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847), Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847)
The BrontësCharlotte (1816-55), Emily (1818-48), Anne (1820-49) portrait by BranwellBrontë of his sisters, Anne, Emily, and Charlotte (c. 1834) • Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre transcend sentiment into myth-making • Wuthering Heights plumbs the psychic unconscious in a search for wholeness, while Jane Eyre narrates the female quest for individuation
Historical Novels • Novels that reconstruct a past age, often when two cultures are in conflict • Fictional characters interact with historical figures in actual events • Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) is considered the father of the historical novel.
Charles Dickens1812-1870 • By including varieties of poor people in all his novels, Dickens brought the problems of poverty to the attention of his readers: | https://www.slideserve.com/zelda/introduction-to-the-course-and-introduction-to-the-novel |
It seems as if memory — both when it works and when it doesn’t — is in the news a lot today. In the world of science, we’re being told that, if we moisturize our bodies, we may have a better chance of preventing Alzheizmer’s, as well as a host of other illnesses.
Elsewhere we read that, if you apply electrical stimulation to elderly people’s brains, you can revitalize their memory so it’s as if they’re in their 20s again. A lower tech suggestion is just to eat lots of garlic.
I’m Hearing Voices In My Head… and That’s a Good Thing
6 of my Favorite Online “Dialogue Coaches”
Even though I’ve read thousands of novels over the years (yes, thousands), my first-time status as a novel writer has been showing itself when it comes to writing dialogue. Dialogue seems so easy when you read skilled writers such as Georgette Heyer or Dorothy Sayers. Both of them managed to create entirely distinct characters whose conversation is natural, charming, insightful and, in Georgette Heyer’s case, often laugh-out-loud funny.
Both these authors perfectly illustrate a core principle of novel writing, which is to show it, not tell it. For example, as I noted above, Georgette Heyer can write dialog that is both charming and funny. She doesn’t have to tell you that her characters are witty. They (literally) speak for themselves.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is the author who, incapable of writing either charming or witty dialog, fills her characters’ mouths with leaden commonplaces. Then, having left you feeling as if you’re at the world’s most boring office party, she tells you that “Count So-and-So was one of the cleverest people in court” or that “Our hero couldn’t get over how brilliant the object of his desire showed herself to be.” No, the Count was not clever and that desirable object was dull, not brilliant. With dialogue, you just can’t fake it ’til you make it.
Stubborn Characters When Writing… and Knitting
Although few would guess it, I am in fact a very methodical writer. I always start with an outline, whether it’s a short one that I can hold in my head or a longer one that I have to write out. Over my years as a lawyer, I’ve written thousands of outlines as a predicate to legal briefs and memos. On occasion, I’ll discover that an argument I set up in outline form doesn’t work in prose, but I can usually make it right just by reorganizing my ideas to improve the flow.
Writing a novel is proving to be very different. I came up with a story based upon my family’s experiences in Europe over the course of the latter part of the 19th century and the first two-thirds of the 20th century — and I put it in outline form. I then built up details about each character and put that information into the outline. Lastly, I did the historical research and into the outline went the history too.
The Author’s Dilemma: Introducing Morality Into the Writing
One of my cheap thrills is watching the CW show Supernatural. The interaction between brothers Sam and Dean Winchester and their friends, whether angel, demon, witch, or even human, along with imaginative and sometimes incredibly funny plots, has made it an engaging viewing experience. | https://libertyislandmag.com/author/bookworm/ |
When I went to the Viable Paradise writer’s workshop back in the distant dim year of 2013, the inestimable Elizabeth Bear, along with various other people who are cleverer than me, explained to me about the tricks a writer gets for free in their box. The writing-skill cards you drew in your first poker hand.
The magic of this idea is that it is a promise: everyone gets something. Every writer, no matter how green, has at least one thing they’re good at to start off with. It could be character, or prose rhythm, or pacing. Or the instructions to the Plot Machine. (The people who got the instructions to the Plot Machine are very lucky, and I hate them all with a profound envy. My Plot Machine instructions were incomplete and mostly made of those guys from the IKEA instruction manuals, gesticulating happily at a pile of incomprehensible parts.)
Your One Free Trick is the skill you can build on. The skill you can lean on, while you learn the rest of the craft of being a writer. Thinking about writing craft in this way—as a collection of interlinked skills, some of which you got for free, some of which you have to work for—completely changed how I approached new and hard projects. In a certain sense, this concept let me learn how to write a novel.
Novels are, for those of you who were not aware, really damn hard to write. Especially if you were, like me, a person who had been merrily writing short stories with some success for a good while before taking the plunge into longform narrative. Novels are hard for a lot of reasons—David Hartwell said that “a novel is a work of fiction longer than a short story, and flawed”, or at least that’s what I’ve heard that he said—but for me, the most difficult part of writing one was that there were so many words in it. (Hear me out.) A novel is very long. The pacing of it is completely different than a short story. You can write a thousand words, or two thousand words, and still have so much farther to go that all that work is but a drop in a vast and merciless ocean. When I started seriously writing A Memory Called Empire, I didn’t even feel like I was making a great leap into the unknown of a new format: it was more like a slow trudge into the unknown, with every step requiring an individual act of self-propellment. I had to figure out a new way of thinking about writing, one which didn’t make me feel so stuck, so bogged down, while I learned a skill I didn’t have—the skill of writing a piece of fiction longer than a short story.
I started thinking of writing as a practice, the way language-learning is a practice, or yoga, or rock-climbing. Something done consistently over time, that becomes a sequential and evolving exploration. Because clearly I was working on how to write a novel. That’s the part of my practice which I’m actively trying to push into, to stretch myself at. And I remembered the One Free Trick promise: there were skills I got for free, and skills I had to learn. And if I leaned on the skills I had for free, I could help myself while I was learning a new skill.
For my sins, my One Free Trick is setting.
Setting isn’t the worst Free Trick to have as a SFF writer, mind you. You want your weird shit evocatively and coherently described? I have got acres of weird shit to sell you: here is a city made of salt, here is a tongueless and eyeless angel in the form of a sandwich kiosk operator, here is the first Crusade outside of Acre, would you like a free sample of a spaceship which uses corrosive high-surface-tension acids as a zero-gravity weapon? And from setting I fairly quickly picked up theme—the ‘what is this story about’ trick. (For me, since these were the first two skills I had mastery of, they’re intimately linked: the way the setting works conveys the metaphor-set, prose register, and imagery which reinforce the theme, and also delimit the possible ‘what is this about’ questions to a narrower set). Of course, this meant that most of my early work is evocative-yet-overdescribed symbolic worldbuilding. (I got better.) Over several years of writing short fiction and fanfiction, I picked up a halfway decent set of prose and character tools by dint of practice.
But none of that was going to get me through Writing A Novel—the pacing challenges, the stamina challenges, the plot challenges. So many things happen in a novel. One after the other. All these events. And they all have to be the right events to move the story towards the thematically-appropriate ending, which, oogh. So hard. Even though I subscribe to the ‘plot = character + situation + problem’ rubric, I often find that despite having Situation and Character to start with, and enough determination to chew on those both until I discover a Problem, which will give me the thematic question of the piece and some ideas for the end … but it’s awfully hard for me to turn a Problem into events-in-sequence. And you sure need those for a novel.
So I went back to my Free Tricks. How could I use setting and theme to push me through while I worked on learning the skill of novel? First, I made some slightly conservative—conservative in the sense of not taking risks—choices about what kind of novel I was going to write. For instance, I decided to work in cultural context I feel very capable of and comfortable writing (inspired by middle-period Byzantine literati culture—just IN SPACE!) with character types I know I can write well (poet-diplomats are a specialty) and thematic concerns that I find deeply energizing and pleasurable to explore (memory preservation, imperialism and the colonized mind, uniqueness of individual identity).
I let myself pick things to put in this book that aren’t hard for me, that make good use of my strengths. There’s a ton of lush visual description in this book—buildings and clothing and peculiar food items, everything having enormous symbolic weight … because I love that stuff, and because I’m good at it. And then I turned those lush visuals into weight-bearing parts of the book—plot-bearing parts of the book. I’ve even used my One Free Trick skills to get unstuck on transitions or scenes I’d paused on for a while: I’d describe, in detail and with precision, one of those important symbolic visual setting elements, but I’d do it from my POV character’s impressions and understanding of what she was seeing. Eventually I would see why my protagonist would be looking so closely at that thing—and I’d be in the scene, deep in the character’s voice, and I’d have done some thematic work to keep the story moving along.
Your One Free Trick might be very different from mine. But the principle is the same: if you’ve got character, use your characters to drive your plot and your setting. If you’ve got structure and pacing, build yourself a scaffold of an interesting structure to hang your character work on. (I think the Structure People must outline a lot. The Structure People are cool.) Your One Free Trick is your fallback position. It’s what you can use to propel you through the long, difficult process of learning something new—of working on drawing the cards you weren’t dealt in your initial Writing Skill hand. Of treating writing as a practice.
Arkady Martine writes speculative fiction when she isn’t writing Byzantine history. She is overly fond of borders, rhetoric, and liminal spaces. Her novel A Memory Called Empire publishes March 26th with Tor Books. Find her on Twitter as @ArkadyMartine. | https://www.tor.com/2019/03/25/one-free-trick-how-to-use-the-writing-skills-you-have-to-learn-the-ones-you-dont/?utm_source=exacttarget&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_term=tordotcom-tordotcomnewsletter&utm_content=na-readblog-blogpost&utm_campaign=tor&e=a3087719b835fd5916a5573381c09d776d7afc81b1e52fca47987d075cb3131c |
In her latest novel, Away, Amy Bloom tells a story that is both personal and panoramic. The story follows the journey of Lillian Leyb as she comes to America fleeing a Russian pogrom and journeys across the United States to Alaska en route to Siberia in search of her lost daughter Sophie.
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The first thought and moments of a character are pretty mysterious . . .|
BLOOM
I found Lillian where one finds ones characters something sparks your interest and you blow on it and hope to make something out of it. The first thought and moments of a character are pretty mysterious to a writer. There is no formula. I try to imagine my characters in a variety of occupations and situations, said Bloom.
She keeps a file with clippings that interest her that may serve as prompts for stories. One clipping is a letter to Dear Abby where a man confesses that he met a wonderful woman with a prosthetic leg and on the first date he told her he also had a prosthetic device. Engaged and in love he wonders how to come clean.
Lillians journey comes from an apocryphal story out of Alaska about a woman who walked to Russia. The story was that a woman turned up in the Northern provinces heading north and didnt speak English, said Bloom.
Bloom combines sharp writing, telling details and keen psychological insights (honed by her work as a therapist) to craft a compelling narrative.
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I am interested in how people behave and how that behavior expresses feelings. |
BLOOM
Bloom began her career as an actor until she realized that coaching and directing interested her more. From there she pursued a degree in social work and worked until recently as a therapist.
I am interested in how people behave and how that behavior expresses feelings. When it comes down to it human behavior is the only thing that really holds my interest, said Bloom.
Her character Lillian is particularly interesting. Numbed by tragedy, she approaches life with a sense of emotional and moral detachment, free to make choices based on her current needs.
It is not my experience that terrible suffering immediately results in one being a better person. Lillian is in the process of coming back to herself. How you feel about Lillian probably depends on your own nature. She is not adorable, not plucky and she is no Shirley Temple, said Bloom.
She noted that her background in social work taught her that personality is poured into a vessel that is shaped by family, community and culture. Bloom said character development centers on the age-old question of nature versus nurture. How much of ourselves is made up of what we are and how much made up of what we do with what we are.
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"Most good stories dont happen nowhere. We are shaped by the world and the times in which we live. . ." |
BLOOM
To bring the subcultures and communities that Lillian inhabits alive Bloom did extensive research going to libraries from Yale to Alaska.
In Alaska, she sorted through items that included old boxes of photos and a jacket made of whale intestines.
Most good stories dont happen nowhere. We are shaped by the world and the times in which we live, observed Bloom.
The result is a story that crackles with details, from the scratchiness of the cheap nightgown her lover buys for Lillian to the endless white of the Alaskan sky.
Bloom began with a forty page outline. I diverted from it many times in many ways and also clung to it like a safety rope, she said.
Her challenge as she wrote using an omniscient narrator was seeing enough through Lillians eyes while keeping up with other characters.
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The ending is a crucial moment in storytelling where more|
is still happening . . .
BLOOM
Bloom also struggled with the ending, missing a deadline by several months as she revised the last thirty pages of the book.
Good endings are tough. In a number of novels that I love I feel the last forty to sixty pages fall off. The ending is a crucial moment in storytelling where more is still happening, said Bloom.
Blooms preparation for becoming a writer was reading. As a reader she looks for a writer who completely immerses herself in her characters, shows and doesnt tell, can craft a great sentence, and uses strong, smart, moving language. She likes a story to be about something.
Her advice to new writers is to read widely.
As a writer you should read people
As a writer you should read people who are good writers but not necessarily like you. If you are reading a lot of VS Pritchett try reading Don DeLillo. If you read a lot of Mary Gordon try reading Kelly Link, said Bloom.
Bloom met early success as a writer. Her first story appeared in a Canadian feminist journal and was later selected to be in The Best American Short Stories. Her second and third stories appeared in Story and The New Yorker.
Her agent, Phyllis Wender of The Gersh Agency, read her first three stories and requested a meeting.
She seemed like a person of integrity. I signed with her and asked, What happens now? She said, Now we get married and I get 15 percent. If everything I wrote between now and the day I die sold 100 copies she would always return my calls and always treat me well. said Bloom.
She said authors seeking agents should look at the back of books of living writers whose writing resembles theirs and write a short, professional, non-whiney, non-belligerent, non-threatening letter along with their best ten pages of writing.
As for working with editors, Bloom advises writers to take every opportunity to make their writing better.
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The goal is not to get it done.|
The goal is to be good.
BLOOM
The goal is not to get it done. The goal is to be good. When you build a house in a rainstorm the goal is to be done. When you build a house to last 100 years the goal is for it to be good,
Bloom is currently at work on a screenplay and will begin a new novel in January.
Amy Bloom is the author of the acclaimed story collection Come to Me, a National Book Award finalist, and A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You, nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award; a novel, Love Invents Us, and a nonfiction work, Normal. Bloom teaches creative writing at Yale University, where she is a fellow of Calhoun College.
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About Regular Contributor|
Ellen Birkett Morris
Ellen Birkett Morris is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in national print and online publications including The New York Times. She also writes for a number of literary, regional, trade, and business publications, and she has contributed to six published nonfiction books in the trade press. Ellen is a regular contributor to Authorlink, assigned to interview various New York Times bestselling authors and first-time novelists. | https://authorlink.com/interview/novelist-amy-bloom-advises-the-goal-is-not-to-get-it-done-the-goal-is-to-be-good-2/ |
... exuberant ... These eighteen stories are intimate, focusing on internal examinations of personal sacrifices and desires, desperate struggles to connect and survive, and honest moments between two people. They distill flashes of joy, despair, and lust into crystalline moments of flickering emotion. Long, vibrant sentences and powerful imagery ground their feelings ... This collection amplifies the lives of people who were often disregarded or dismissed by a Brazilian society in flux. Its stories vibrate with emotion and honesty, conveyed through distinct voices and strong imagery by a confident and deft writer.
Fatima Daas, Tr. Lara Vergnaud
Rave
Foreword Reviews
... a mesmerizing, semiautobiographical novel about the meanings of identity, family, and sexuality ... Woven throughout the novel are rich etymologies, folklore, and religious beliefs. The straightforward style is accentuated by the repetition of biographical information and the nuanced changes in the history of her identity. Fatima’s fears and desires impact her relationships as she grapples with her truths. The structure is taut, showcasing the passage of time and Fatima’s shifting identities.
The Last One
is a fresh addition to queer fiction—a deep and original debut novel featuring a Muslim lesbian who is looking for acceptance and belonging.
Maryse Condé, Tr. Richard Philcox
Rave
Foreword Reviews
The prose is fluid, luminous, and evocative of each setting. It also hops from the present day to the rich backstories of each character, highlighting the struggles inflicted on them because of political strife, climate disasters, and colorism. They are layered characters who, despite their circumstances, find hope in friendship. The novel is crowded with details about their struggles; they are linked through how they’ve survived deceit, betrayal, and hardship. The subtle cynicism throughout the novel is balanced by the love the men have for each other.
Timothy Schaffert
Positive
Lambda Literary
... a vivid and striking story ... Through Clem’s perspective, the novel evokes a tapestry of smells and their obscure origins. Paris is wistfully recalled through the scents of each character’s freedom before the war. As secrets and truths are revealed of all, the destiny of each character—and the choices they make—cause reverberations in the lives of the others ... Small acts of bravery during the Resistance may be less known, but this novel gives imagination to the courage of queer lives during the Occupation. Clem embodies the wisdom of a fully-rendered life, filled with deception, compassion, and transformation. A luminous character invented to populate the queer history that was lost. Once she’s allowed herself to love others, she deceives one last time for those she loves.
Matthew Clark Davison
Positive
Foreword Reviews
Glimpses into his past add context to the story line, while Matthew Clark Davison’s clear prose highlights Thomas’s external challenges and internal struggles ... riveting.
Cassandra Lane
Rave
Foreword Reviews
Drawing on family stories and scraps of truth, Lane reconstructs rich histories ... Her book’s short, emotive chapters reimagine the pain and suffering that her great-grandparents withstood. Lane expresses that she feels those bonds in her blood and bones, and carries each family truth as a lesson of survival ... an exceptional memoir of self-discovery through family histories, even without official records.
Banine, trans. by Anne Thompson-Ahmadova
Rave
Foreword Reviews
French Azerbaijani writer Banine’s memoir of her childhood,
Days of the Caucasus
, is an entertaining early twentieth-century account ... Banine’s consummate prose is marked by undertones of erudite wittiness. Educated and pragmatic, but also hopeful, she expresses wanting nothing more than to be free to pursue self-realization.
Days in the Caucasus
was published in 1945; this first English translation of the memoir is an absolute joy—full of adventure, travel, and youthful dreams.
Jeffrey H. Jackson
Rave
Foreword Reviews
... a captivating tale of queer love and resistance during World War II ... Jackson’s research is impeccable and his writing is lively. Even though this is a Holocaust biography, the trajectory of the women’s lives, and their artistic symbiosis, make for fascinating reading. The book’s clean, crisp language incorporates needed historical context well ... Full of struggles, triumphs, and intimate knowledge of a complex relationship,
Paper Bullets
is a gem of a historical text about two women who stood up to power defiantly, living on their own terms.
Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones
Positive
Foreword Reviews
... riveting ... Clear, structured, and lively, the book and its intrigues are fascinating. Jeffreys-Jones humanizes all involved, revealing the motivations of spies and government investigators alike.
The Nazi Spy Ring
is an engaging account of interwar espionage that played out in newspapers across the world.
Maryse Condé, Trans. by Richard Philcox
Rave
Foreword Reviews
Maryse Condé’s
The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana
is a gripping story ... Rich atmospheres are established ... Gritty, dank surroundings are contrasted with the clothes, neighborhoods, and homes of the well-off ... a searing literary portrait of the exploitation of immigrants, the corruption of governments, and the powerful emergence of radicalism, with astute commentary on how these elements breed trauma, generation after generation.
Kristen Millares Young
Positive
Foreword Reviews
... rife with personal struggles, confrontations, and the pain of memory ... the prose is most evocative when it’s describing the eerie and alluring nature of Neah Bay and of its particular settings ... The characters soften toward one another as the novel progresses, their depth becoming apparent and their stories becoming more and more compelling ... a gritty novel in which floundering people find hope and understanding where they least expect it.
Guillermo Saccomanno, Trans. by Andrea G. Labinger
Positive
Foreword Reviews
77
is a taut historical thriller with noir overtones ... Gómez’s late-night wanderings through the streets of Buenos Aires of the seventies energize the novel along with Saccomanno’s judicious use myth and superstition. These noirish elements deepen the suspense with a foreboding moodiness that enhances the paranoiac tone. Saccomanno’s
77
is a trenchant thriller recounting the murderous epoch of the Dirty War.
Elena Ferrante
Rave
Three Percent
This topic of female friendship may seem prosaic and even fertile ground for melodrama, but Ferrante is too gifted and too smart to reduce her own psychological observations to dramatic extremes. Instead she mines the emotional gamut of friendship through success, poverty, betrayal, abuse, and resignation …
The Story of a New Name
is a departure from her previous novels in that it is much longer and involves a multitude of characters that intersect, overlap and weave seamlessly in and out of the narrative. Most importantly though, it examines the role of femininity, how it represses, constricts, judges and becomes currency.
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A field is a mathematical structure consisting of a set of elements and two binary functions called addition and multiplication, both of which are associative. Addition is communicative and there exists an identity element. Also there exist an additive inverse for every element. Multiplication is not necessarily communicative but there does exist a multiplicative identity. There exist muliplicative inverves for all elements except the additive identity.
Let F be a field with S the set of its elements and its two operation denoted by + and juxtaposition for addition and multiplication, respectively. The additive and multiplicative identities are denoted as 0 and1, respectively . The additive inverse of an element x is denoted as −x. The multiplicative inverse of x is denoted as x−1.
A polynomial over F is of the form
where the coefficients cj and the base of the polynomical k belong to S and n is a nonnegative integer.
The largest power n in a polynomial is called its degree and the smallest power m with a nonzero coefficient will be called its minimum power, The difference (n−m) will be called the degree span of the polynomial.
It was found first that the sum of the digits of a decimal number is essentially equal to its remainder upon division by 9. Furthermore the remainder modulo 9 of the product of two numbers is equal to the remainder modulo 9 of the product of the remainders of the two numbers. This is a property of remainder arithmetic. The concept of a remainder requires an order relation, which is not part of the structure of a field. Later it was found that the net sum of the digits of a decimal number created a alternately adding and subtracting its digits is equal its remainder upon division by 11.
Consider a polynomial
where C is the sequence of coefficients in F, cncn-1…c1c0, and k is an element of F. The sequence C. can be considered a representation of the element N=P(C, k) to the base k..
The sum of the coefficients can be represented as the value of P(C, k) with k set equal to the multiplicative identity 1; i.e.,
Likewise an alternating net sum of the coefficients of a polynomial is equal to the value of P(C, k) with k set equal to the additive inverse of the multiplicative identity, −1; i.e.,
There is also the trivial special case of the constant term c0, which. is the value of P(C, k) with k set equal to the additive identity 0.
For the following it is necessary to assume that the multiplication function for the field is commutative. Let h be any element of the commutative field F except k and let (k+(−h)) be denoted as (k−h). Note that
This is established by representing the two terms created from the LHS as
Thus the lemma:
Now consider the polynomial
and form P(C, h) and [ P(C, k) − P(C, h)]
Note that (k−h) is a factor of each term of the above and therefore is a factor of the sum. Consequently
This means that
where Q is a polynomial in k and h. Hence
Thus P(C, h) is in the nature of a remainder upon the division of P(C, k) by (k−h). If 0≤P(C, h)<(k−h) then it is the remainder. If not, the remainder is easily obtained by a simple operation such as [(k−h)+P(C, h)] when P(C, k) is negative.
Note the special cases mentioned previously
Let N and P be two polynomials over F with degrees respectively of n and p, where p<n. The remainder R of N with respect to P is a polynomial of degree r such that r is less than the minimum power of N and 0≤r<p and such that there exist a polynomial Q such that the degree q of Q is (n-p) and
Let Rem(Q, L) denote the remainder function, the remainder of Q with respect to L. Then
And
The proofs consist of noting that the multiples of L in N and M are irrelevant in determining the remainders.
Now consider two polynomials in k, P(C , k) and P(D, k) and form their sum S(C+D, k)=P(C, k)+P(D, k) and their product Q(E, k)=P(C, k)*P(D, k). Then
and
Restated these are: | http://applet-magic.com/fieldpoly3.htm |
# Input/output automaton
Input/output automata provide a formal model, applicable in describing most types of an asynchronous concurrent system. On its own, the I/O automaton model contains a very basic structure that enables it to model various types of distributed systems. To describe specific types of asynchronous systems, additional structure must be added to this basic model. The model presents an explicit method for describing and reasoning about system components such as processes and message channels that interact with one another, operating at arbitrary relative speeds. The I/O automata were first introduced by Nancy A. Lynch and Mark R. Tuttle in "Hierarchical correctness proofs for distributed algorithms", 1987.
"An I/O automaton models a distributed system component that can interact with other system components. It is a simple type of state machine in which the transitions are associated with named actions." There are three types of actions: input, output, and internal actions. The automaton uses its input and output actions to communicate with its environment, whereas the internal actions are only visible to the automaton itself. Unlike internal and output actions that are selected and carried out by the automaton, the input actions – which simply arrive from the environment - are not under automaton's control.
## Examples
I/O automata can be used to model individual components of a distributed system, such as a process, a message channel in a message passing system, or a shared data structure in a shared memory systems.
### Process I/O automaton
Figure 1 depicts an example of an I/O automaton for a process in an asynchronous message-passing distributed system. In this setting, process Pi communicates with other processes by using a message passing system. Its output actions are of the form send(m)i,j, which represents process Pi sending a message with contents m to process Pj. The input actions are of form receive(m)k,i, representing the receipt of message with contents m by process Pi from process Pk. (The internal actions of Pi, which would correspond to the algorithm that the process is running are not shown.)
### FIFO message channel
A message channel can also be modeled by an I/O automaton. Figure 2 illustrates a typical unidirectional FIFO channel automaton, named Ci,j. It has input actions of the form send(m)i,j, and output actions of the form receive(m)i,j. Each message m may contain 0 or 1 (m ∈ {0,1}). The state of the automaton stores a FIFO queue of all messages that have been sent but not yet received.
In a typical distributed system where both process automata and communication channel automata exist, they are composed in a way that output actions of one automaton are matched and executed with identically-named input actions of the other automata. For example, consider a system composed of two process, Pi and Pj, and a communication channel Ci,j from process Pi to process Pj. In this setting, process Pi executes the output action send(m)i,j, if and only if channel Ci,j also executes its send(m)i,j input action.
### Atomic read/write register
Figure 3 illustrates an atomic read/write register I/O automaton in a shared memory system with two processes, P1 and P2. The value V stored in the register is of type integer (V ∈ Z). The state of the automaton stores this value. Input actions consist of writei(V), which represents process Pi requesting to write a value V to the register (where i ∈ {1,2} and V ∈ Z), and readi, which corresponds to a process Pi requesting to read the value currently stored in the register. The output action acki is used to inform process Pi that the write request has successfully completed. The output action Vi represents the value V being returned as a response to a read request by process Pi.
The automaton also includes internal actions perform_Write(V), which writes the value V to the register (by updating the state of the automaton), and perform_Read, which is used to read the value V stored in the state. (These internal actions are not shown in Figure 3.)
## Formal specification
An I/O automaton A, or simply an automaton, comprises five components:
sig(A) states(A) start(A) trans(A) tasks(A)
These five components are described below.
### Signature
The initial step in formalization of an I/O automaton A is the definition of its signature, sig(A). A signature S describes the I/O automaton's actions using three disjoint sets of actions:
in(S): input actions, out(S): output actions, and int(S): internal actions.
Based on the above formalization of input, output and internal actions, it is possible to define the following objects.
ext(S): the external actions, defined as in(S) ∪ out(S) local(S): the locally controlled actions, defined as out(S) ∪ int(S) extsig(S): the external signature, defined as (in(S), out(S), ø) acts(S) is defined as the set of all the actions of signature S.
### States
The set of states of automaton A, denoted states(A), need not be finite. This is a significant generalization of the usual notion of finite automata, as it enables modeling systems with unbounded data structures like counters and unbounded length queues. The set of start states (also known as initial states) is a non-empty subset of states. Multiple start states are allowed so that some input information can be included in the start states.
### Transition relation
The state-transition relation of automaton A is denoted trans(A) ⊆ states(A) × acts(sig(A)) × states(A). It satisfies the property that "for every state s and every input action π, there is a transition (s, π, s') ∈ trans(A)."
A transition, also known as a step of I/O automaton A, is defined as an element (s, π, s') of trans(A). An input transition refers to a transition (s, π, s') when π is an input action, output transition indicates a transition (s, π, s') when π is an output action and so on. For any state s and action π, if the I/O automaton A has some transition of the form (s, π, s'), then π is said to be enabled in s. I/O automata are described as input-enabled because all input actions are required to be enabled in every state. A quiescent state s is defined as a state where only input actions are enabled.
### Tasks
The fifth component of the I/O automaton A, tasks (A), is a task partition, defined as an equivalence relation on locally controlled actions of A, which has at most countably many equivalence classes. Informally, the task partition tasks(A), represents an abstract description of "tasks," or "threads of control," within A.
This partition is used to define fairness conditions on an execution of the automaton. These conditions require the automaton to continue giving fair turns to each of its tasks during its execution. This is particularly helpful when modelling a system component that performs multiple jobs. For instance, a component that participates in an ongoing algorithm while periodically reporting status information to its environment simultaneously would have two tasks. The partition is also useful when several automata are composed (to produce a larger system automaton) when specifying that all the automata in the composition continue to take steps in the composed system.
### Example: Formal definition of channel I/O automaton
As described above, Ci,j is an example of I/O automaton that represents a unidirectional FIFO channel from process Pi to process Pj. Let m be a binary message: m ∈ {0,1}. The automaton Ci,j can be formally defined as follows.
Signature:
sig(Ci,j) specifies that the automaton has two kinds of actions:
An input action of (Ci,j) is of the form send(m)i,j, where m ∈ {0,1}. An output action of (Ci,j) is of the form receive(m)i,j, where m ∈{0,1}.
Intuitively, the action send(m)i,j indicates that a message m has entered the channel when it is sent by process Pi and the action receive(m)i,j indicates that a message m has left the channel when it is delivered to process Pj.
States:
states(Ci,j) is the set of all finite sequences of elements m ∈ {0,1}. Intuitively, the state represents the sequence of messages currently en route from the sender, process Pi, to the receiver, process Pj, in the order they were sent.
start(Ci,j), representing the initial states of the queue, contains only the empty sequence.
Transitions
The transition relation can be modelled in a precondition-effect style, where all the transitions that include each specific type of action are grouped into a single piece of code. In this code, the conditions which must be satisfied before allowing an action to occur, are formalized as a predicate on the pre-state s, which is the state before the action occurs. Consequent changes to the state that result from the execution of the action are coded in the form of a simple program. This program is executed indivisibly, as a single transition. If this program is applied to the state s, the new state s' results.
The transitions of Ci,j are described as:
for send(m)i,j:
Precondition: None Effect: m is added to the end of the sequence stored in the state (where m ∈ {1,0})
for receive(m)i,j:
Precondition: m is the first element in the sequence stored in the state (where m ∈ {1,0}) Effect: remove the first element of the sequence stored in the state
Intuitively, the send action can be executed any time; it causes the addition of the message m to the end of the queue of messages in che channel. The receive action removes and returns the first element of the queue.
Tasks
tasks(Ci,j), represents a task partition that groups together all actions of form receive into a single task. Intuitively, handing over messages to process Pj is considered as a single task.
{receive(m)i,j : m ∈ {0,1}}.
## Execution and trace
### Execution
In a run of an automaton, a string is generated that describes the behaviour of the component the automaton models. "An execution fragment of I/O Automaton A is either
a finite sequence, s0, π1, s1, π2,... , πr, sr, or an infinite sequence, s0, π1, s1,π2,...,πr,sr,...,
of alternating states and actions of A such that (sk, πk+1, sk+1) is a transition of A for every k ≥ 0."
A finite sequence must terminate with a state. An execution is defined as an execution fragment that begins with start state. The set of executions of A is represented by execs(A). A reachable state in I/O automaton A is the final state of a finite execution of A.
Assume α is a finite execution fragment of A ending with state sf. Assume further that α' is any execution fragment of A that begins with sf, the last state of α. In this case, the sequence produced by concatenating α and α', and eliminating the duplicate occurrence of sf, the last state of α, is represented by α.α' . This sequence is also an execution fragment of I/O automaton A.
### Trace
A trace of an I/O automaton A is the sequence of external actions that occurs in some execution α of A. The set of all traces of A is represented as traces(A).
### Example: Three executions
Executions a, b and c are three executions of the automaton Ci,j described in Formal Definition of Channel I/O Automaton (where message m ∈ {0, 1}). In this example, the states are indicated by putting the sequence of messages in queue in brackets; the empty sequence is represented by λ.
## Operations on automata
### Composition operation
It is possible to compose several automata, each describing individual system components, to yield an automaton that represents a larger, more complex system. In this case, actions that have the same name in each constituent automata are identified together. Therefore, when a component automata takes a step that includes an action π, all other component automata with π in their signatures also perform that action. The following outlines the conditions for composition of automata A and A' to be permitted:
The internal actions of A must be disjoint from actions of A'. This prevents performance of a step in A' when the internal actions of A – with the same name as actions of A' - are performed. The output actions of A and A' must be disjoint. This condition ensures that only one constituent automaton controls performance of an output action.
If the composition is constructed from a countably infinite collection of automata, then there is an additional constraint: each action needs to be an action of only finitely many of the constituent automata. Infinite composition of automata allows modeling of logical systems that may be constructed from many logical components. The logical system is often implemented on a physical system that contains fewer components.
#### Example: Composition
Figure 4 depicts a composition of two processes, Pi and Pj and a FIFO message channel Ci,j, matching output actions of one automaton with identically named input actions of other automata. Thus, a send(m)i,j output performed by process Pi is matched and performed with a send(m)i,j input performed by channel Ci,j.
Process Pi sends the message m, where m ∈{1,0} via channel Ci,j to Process Pj. Process Pj reverses the bit in the received message m from Pi using its internal action reverse - not shown in the picture - and forwards the message to other parts of the system.
### Hiding operation
It is possible to hide the output actions of an I/O automaton through "reclassifying them as internal actions." This has the effect of excluding them from communication with other parts of the system. Formally, the hiding operation for signatures is described as follows:
Let S be a signature and Φ ⊆ out(S). hideΦ(S) is the new signature S', where
in(S')= in(S) out(S')= out(S) - Φ int(S') =int(S) ∪ Φ
Therefore, "If A is an automaton and Φ ⊆ out(A), then hideΦ(A) is the automaton A' obtained from A by replacing sig(A) with sig(A') = hideΦ(sig(A))."
## Fairness
Recall that a task partition is defined as an equivalence relation on an I/O automaton's locally controlled actions, containing at most countably many equivalence classes. In this setting, fairness can be defined as continuously providing each task with a chance to perform an action.
In an I/O automaton A, let C represent a class of tasks(A). Formally, an execution fragment α of A is considered fair if the below criteria hold for every class C:
"If α is finite, then C is not enabled in the final state of α." "If α is infinite, then α contains either infinitely many events from C or infinitely many occurrences of states in which C is not enabled."
An event is defined as the "occurrence of an action in a sequence, for example, an execution or a trace." Based on the definition of fairness, "infinitely often," each task (or equivalence class C) gets a chance to perform an action. When a task (or equivalence class) C does get a chance to perform an action, two cases are possible: an action in C is enabled in current state and can be performed, or none of the actions in C are enabled in the current state and therefore, can not be performed. Thus, a finite fair execution with final state Sf can be defined as an execution where the automaton continuously gives turns to all tasks in a round-robin fashion, but no actions are executed as none are enabled in Sf.
The set of fair executions of I/O automaton A is represented by fairexecs(A). Let β be the trace of a fair execution of A. Then β is a fair trace of A. The set fair traces of A is represented by fairtraces(A).
In the execution example, execution (a) is fair, since in its final state no receive action is enabled. Execution (b) is finite, yet a receive action is enabled in its final state. Therefore, execution (b) is not fair. Execution (c) is infinite, does not contain receive events, and at all points after the first step, receive actions are enabled. Therefore, it is not a fair execution. The definition of fairness has a significant property: "the fair executions of a composition are the composition of the fair executions of the components:" that is, Fair(Πi Ai)= Πi Fair(Ai).
## Properties and proof methods
I/O automata provide an accurate description of asynchronous systems. They are also used to formalize and prove "precise claims" about "what systems can do." In this section, a number of important types of properties are described. These, as well as further properties and proof methods, are explained in Distributed Algorithms.
### Input enabling properties
The input enabling property states that the automaton cannot block input actions from happening. The two significant advantages of having this property are:
As the model is designed to cope with arbitrary inputs, a major source of system errors due to a failure in handling unexpected inputs is eliminated. The input-enabling property makes use of "simple notions of external behavior for an automaton, based on sequences of external actions." Proofs of certain theorems in the model might fail without the assumption of this property.
### Trace properties
As internal actions of an I/O automaton are invisible to a user; the I/O automaton appears to be a black box and the user merely sees "traces of automaton's executions (or fair executions)." Certain properties of I/O automata and their proofs are typically formalized as "properties of their traces or fair traces."
Let P be a trace property; P has the following components:
sig(P), that represents a signature with no internal actions traces(P), that corresponds to a set of "sequences of actions in acts(sig(P))." This set may be infinite.
The trace property describes an external signature as well as a set (or a property) of sequences viewed at that interface. Sometimes acts(sig(P)) is represented by a shorthand notation acts(P). When it is mentioned that I/O automaton A satisfies a trace property P, (at least) two different meanings might be intended:
"extsig(A) = sig(P) and traces(A) ⊆ traces(P)" "extsig(A) = sig(P) and fairtraces(A) ⊆ traces(P)"
Intuitively, it means that when A generates an external behavior then that is allowed by Property P. However, it is not required for A to actually represent every trace of P. Since A is input-enabled, then for every possible sequence of input actions, the fairtraces(A) (and so traces(A)) includes a response by A. If fairtraces(A) ⊆ traces(P) holds, then property P must contain all of the generated sequences.
### Safety properties
Intuitively, a safety property represents the fact that nothing "bad" happens. More formally, Let P be a trace property. P is a trace safety property, or safety property, if the following criteria hold for traces(P).
traces(P) is not empty: Something bad cannot happen prior to occurrence of any events; therefore, having non-emptiness is a reasonable condition on traces(P). traces(P) is "prefix-closed": Let β ∈ traces(P) and β' represent a finite prefix of β In this case, β' ∈ traces(P). To elaborate, assume there is a trace in which nothing bad happens. Therefore, nothing bad happens in any prefix of that trace. Thus, having prefix-closure is a reasonable condition on traces(P). traces(P) is "limit-closed": Let β1, β2, . . . represent an infinite sequence of finite sequences in traces(P). Also, assume that for each i, βi is a prefix of βi+1. In this case, the unique sequence β, that is "the limit of the βi under the successive extension ordering" also exists in traces (P). Therefore, if something bad were to happen in a trace, then it would be the result of certain specific event in the trace. Having limit closure in this case is thus a reasonable condition on traces(P).
### Liveness properties
Informally, a liveness property can be interpreted as something "good" eventually happens. Therefore, regardless of what has happened to a certain point in time, something good can happen at some time in the future. More formally, let P be a trace property. P is a trace liveness property, or a liveness property, "if every finite sequence over acts(P) has some extension in traces(P)." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input/output_automaton |
Construction of n-gon from the midpoints of its sides
Construct an n-gon (polygon with n sides) for which n given points serve as midpoints of its sides.
Below there is a Java applet that may help you gain insight into the problem. The applet can be in two modes: "Place points" and "Drag mouse", depending on which of the two boxes at the bottom of the applet is checked.
- In the "Place points" mode you should define n points - midpoints of the sides of a polygon. Just click the mouse anywhere inside the applet's rectangle.
- Next you can experiment with the points you thus defined. Change the mode and start dragging the mouse.
If, for whatever reason, you decide to work with a different set of points - press the Reset button and start again.
A word of advice. First of all, start with a simple case. Try just a few points, say, 3, 4, 5. Secondly, attempt to visualize a polygon and then place the points approximately at the middle of its sides. Thirdly, pay attention to the red "target" circle.
|What if applet does not run?|
By now you ought to have arrived at the following conclusions:
- If n is odd it's probably possible to solve the problem.
- If n is even something goes wrong.
For odd n, the red circle indicates one of the polygon's vertices. Once you move the cursor into the red circle the problem seems to have been solved. Now, actually the applet provides an experimental device. It may help you to fathom a proof but it can't substitute for a rigorous demonstration.
Useful for the proof could be the following observation: Let there be given a segment AB and a point O1. Consider a reflection A1B1 of AB in the point O1. In other words, in order to obtain A1B1 rotate AB around O1 180o. Now AB || A1B1 but they have a different orientation. If you continue reflecting A1B1 in another point O2 to get A2B2 then the segments remain parallel and equal but orientation changes again. After an odd number (1 in particular) of reflections the last segment will be parallel to AB but having a different orientation. After an even number of reflections the first and the last segment will be directly parallel (and, of course, equal). See if you can now complete the proof.
Remark 1
When n is even the segment joining the first and the last point is always the same for a given configuration of vertices. For
Remark 2
The problem could be described algebraically. Assume mi, i = 1, 2, ..., n, stand for the vectors from the origin to the given midpoints. (We may also treat them as the points in an affine space.) Let ai, i = 1, 2, ..., n, denoted the unknown vertices. Then ai's satisfy the following system of equations:
|(1)||
a1 + a2 = 2m1|
a2 + a3 = 2m2
...
an + a1 = 2mn.
Surprisingly this same system of equations describes an apparently unrelated problem.
|Contact| |Front page| |Contents| |Eye opener| |Geometry|Copyright © 1996-2018 Alexander Bogomolny
Let's consider the simplest case of three midpoints (n = 3). After toying with the applet for a while, it's hard not to notice that the center of the red circles does not depend on the position of the cursor but only on the three selected midpoints. Let A be an arbitrary point. Successive reflections in O1, O2, and O3 produce points A1, A2, and A3. It seems very plausible that the center of the red circles, say M, lies in the middle of the segment AA3. Put differently, the point A3 is obtained from A by reflection in the point M. This is something we may try to prove.
But before we do, let's create an accurate picture of what happened. Three successive reflections resulted in another reflection. And the same is probably true of any odd number of reflections. Reflections are just functions: they map points of a plane into points of the same plane. Successive application of two reflections is none other than the composition of the corresponding functions. Thus we want to show that composition of an odd number of reflections is again a reflection.
What about an even number of reflections? What about just two reflections? Composition of two reflections is a translation to the vector parallel to the line connecting the two centers of reflection and twice as long as the distance between the centers. Indeed, in ΔAA1A2,
Translation is a transformation of a plane that moves the plane as a whole in a certain direction to a certain distance. Each point is shifted by a certain vector. Composition of two translations with vectors v1 and v2, respectively, is again a translation corresponding to the vector sum v1 + v2. The latter remark easily leads to a solution of our problem for an even number of points. If n is even, we can combine successive reflections in pairs to get n/2 successive translations. Obviously (e.g., by induction) the sum of any number of translations is a translation. This is true as long as we may refer to the triangular diagram above. But sometimes the sum of vectors is 0 (one side of a triangle shrinks to a point, and the triangle does not appear triangular in the least.) To make the italicized statement universally true we have to accept as a translation the identical transformation under which every point is mapped onto itself. The identical transformation has all points fixed. Since any translation moves all points by the same vector, the only translation that has a fixed point is identical.
Returning to our problem for n even. Let vectors vi, i = 1,...,n/2 map, respectively, O1 to O2
- v1 + v2 + ... + vn/2 = 0, and
- v1 + v2 + ... + vn/2 ≠ 0.
In case 1, pick any point A and obtain points Ai by successive reflections in points Oi. Then A2n will coincide with A thus solving the problem. Since A is arbitrary, the problem has an infinite number of solutions.
In case 2, no solution exists.
For n odd, the problem always has a unique solution. As we already noticed, we have to show that the composition of an odd number of reflections is again a reflection. Taking the center of the latter as a starting point A which is successively reflected in points Oi we'll find that the point An coincides with A. To prove the statement, note that (by induction) composition of an odd number of reflections is the composition of a reflection and a translation (or of a translation and a reflection depending on how one groups our reflections.)
Choose two points A and B, shift them into A1 and B1 by vector v, and then reflect these two in a point O to obtain A2 and B2. As we already know, the quadrilateral ABA2B2 is a parallelogram. Let P denote the point of intersection of its diagonals. This is the midpoint of the segment AA2. Now let B vary. Regardless of its position, the midpoint of the segment BB2 will always coincide with the midpoint of AA2, that is P. Therefore, B2 is always obtained from B by reflection in P.
From the above discussion it follows that all planar translations form a group, and another group is formed by all translations and reflections. The group of translations is commutative (Abelian); for the sum of vectors is commutative. The combined group of translations and reflections is not commutative. It can be shown (try it) that, in general, the composition TR of a translation T and a rotation R is not the same as RT. | http://www.cut-the-knot.org/pythagoras/midpoints.shtml |
Let $S$ be a set with an element $O$ and a composition law $*$ satisfying the following two conditions:
- $P*Q=Q*P$ for all $P,Q\in S$
- $P*(P*Q)=Q$ for all $P,Q\in S$.
Define an operation $+$ on $S$ by $P+Q=O*(P*Q)$, and assume that $+$ is associative, which is equivalent to the condition that
$P*(O*(R*Q))=R*(O*(Q*P))$ for all $P,Q,R\in S$.
This makes (S,+) into a group. Now define a new operation $+'$ on $S$ which is also associative, but with $O'$ in place of $O$. Prove that the function $F:(S,+)\rightarrow (S,+')$ defined by $P\mapsto O*(O'*P)$ is a group isomorphism.
Whew! That was a lot to write down. Ok so bijectivity is easy, but I'm unable to prove the homomorphism part. I have:
$F(P+Q)=F(O*(P*Q))=O*(O'*(O*(P*Q)))$
Now the only non trivial move I can see to make at this point is to use the associativity condition to write this as:
$(P*Q)*(O'*(O*O))$
From here I can't find anything more to do despite a lot of trying, and I certainly can't make it look even close to: | http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/290333/proving-a-group-isomorphism-from-s-to-s |
The conversion factor between Kilobytes and Terabits is 8.192E-9. To convert an amount in Kilobytes in Terabits, multiply the the desired amount in Kilobytes by 8.192E-9:
Amount(Kilobytes) × 8.192E-9(Conversion Factor) = Result(Terabits)
Let's see how both units in this conversion are defined, in this case Kilobytes and Terabits:
The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The International System of Units (SI) defines the prefix kilo as 1000 (103); therefore one kilobyte is 1000 bytes. The unit symbol for the kilobyte is kB. In information technology, particularly in reference to main memory capacity, kilobyte is traditionally used to denote 1024 (210) bytes. This arises from the powers-of-two sizing common to such memory in digital circuitry. In this context, the symbols K and KB are often used when 1024 bytes is meant.
A terabit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix tera (symbol T) is defined in the International System of Units (SI) as a multiplier of 1012 (1 trillion, short scale), and therefore 1 terabit = 1012 bits = 1000000000000 bits = 1000 gigabits. The terabit has the unit symbol Tbit or Tb. The terabit is closely related to the tebibit, a unit multiple derived from the binary prefix tebi of the same order of magnitude, which is equal to 240 bits = 1099511627776 bits, or approximately 10% larger than the terabit. | https://convertilo.com/kilobytes-to-terabits |
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Kilobytes to Bytes Conversion Table
How to convert from Kilobytes to Bytes
Since 1 kilobyte is equal to 1024 bytes, we could say that n kilobytes are equal to 1024 times n bytes. In other words, we could use the following formula:bytes = kilobytes x 1024
For example, let's say that we want to convert 2 kilobytes to bytes. Then, we just replace kilobytes in the abovementioned formula with 2:bytes = 2 x 1024
That is, 2 kilobytes are equal to 2048.0 bytes. | https://cheatsheeting.com/show.html?sheet=kb-to-b-conversions |
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