Business Ownership Choices †10 Mark Question Essay

Orion Designs was established five year ago by Amita Patel and her friend, Yi Ling, after they both finished Art and Design courses. Orion Designs is run as a partnership between the two women. There are currently no other partners. Amita and Yi create hand drawn designs in their studio which is located on an industrial estate. These designs are then sent to another business where a computer is used to put the designs onto transfers. When Amita and Yi get these transfers back, they are put onto mugs and plates purchased from a separate pottery company. Orion Designs then sells the finished mugs and plates as souvenirs. Orion Designs has been making increased profits each year. Amita and Yi now want to expand the business. They could increase the range of items onto which they put the transfers (eg. Mousemats), or perform all of the production processes at Orion Designs. Amita and Yi are aware of the risks involved in expanding the business. Even though they have already invested their own money in the business, there may be a need for additional finance as well as more employees. Actual Question: Amita and Yi have recently had a meeting with a local business advisor about their plan for the expansion of Orion Designs. They were given three possible options: * Option 1- stay as they are; * Option 2- take on additional partners * Option 3 – turn the business into a private limited company. Recommend the best option for Amita and Yi, explaining why the other options were not chosen. Introduction: Amita and Yi are two friends who have a business that puts designs onto pottery. They are currently a partnership but are trying to work out whether they should change the ownership type of their business in order to expand. Paragraph 1 (Analysis of Option 1 and Option 2) The business is currently a partnership so Amita and Yi both have unlimited liability. This means they would have to sell their personal assets if the business went into debt. If they took option 1 this disadvantage would still remain. Option 1 is low risk as they are not doing anything different but it might be difficult for them to expand as they won’t have any additional finance. If they know people who want to join their business then they could take on additional partners, these would have unlimited liability as well. This would bring money into the business but these new partners might want a say in running the business and it might not be what Amita and Yi want, this could lead to arguments. Paragraph 2 (Analysis of Option 3) As a private limited company, the owners of Orion Designs have the benefits of limited liability so they can only lose the amount of money that they invested in the company. So the owners of the business would have more security. If Orion Designs want to expand and have new ranges then they will need more money, if they become ltd they could raise the money they need by having shareholders. This would be an advantage to Orion Designs. At the moment all profits go to Amita and Yi, if they were to become a private limited company they would receive less profits themselves as they would have to pay dividends to all shareholders. Conclusion At the moment there are only two partners, Amita and Yi so they will be limited in the amount of money they can invest but they can make all the decisions themselves. If it were to become a ltd then other shareholders would be able to make decisions and Amita and Yi would lose some control of their business. There are also legal formalities involves in becoming a ltd which would take time and cost money. In order to secure the future of the business and expand I recommend that Orion Designs takes option 2 and stays as a partnership but invites other partners to invest in the business. This way they get the advantage of more capital in the business but do not have to spend a lot of time and money becoming an ltd.

Business Law Enron/WorldCom Essay

1. Introduction The goal of a large number of criminal acts is to obtain as much as profit for the individual or group that carries out the act. Just like bribery or robbery, accounting scandals that shock telecommunications industry within the past two years, also have similar intention that is to make money to benefit a person or a group of people through illegal acts while disguising their illegal origin. Concerning the accounting scandals in Enron, in this paper, we will elaborate the story of Enron and World Com scandals discussing how the company’s situation relates to bankruptcy, insurance, and/or employment law. 2. Accounting Scandals Enron, Global-Crossing, and WorldCom recent cases have become a history in finance and telecommunication areas. The history tells us how fragile the monitoring process of the company’s financial system is. The situation leads to accountancy scandals that hurt investors, employees, and the industries. In many reports on Houston Chronicle, we can conclude that the case of Enron emerged as the company and its auditor cooked up the books to show bogus profits. This is done so to attract the public so that they are interested to invest their money during the company’s initial public offering (IPO).   Previously, the company has already performed manipulation of commodity prices in order to obtain huge profits due to unregulated energy derivative market. Moreover, the bankers also join this bogey as they have been giving loans and would like to reduce their risk hoping that Enron would obtain much money from IPO so that Enron can fulfill their obligation to the bank. Therefore, in this accountancy scandals there are at least three actors: the first is Enron, the company that has a pile of debt that was off balance sheet. The second actors are auditors; they acted as consultants that helped the Enron to write a fake figure of the company’s profit in the book. The third actors are bankers that issued good analyst reports for Enron financial performance and acted as underwriter. By doing so, Enron can raise much money to pay their loans to banks and back to the evil business when Enron run out of money again. Amazingly, within three years, the fake report gives Enron over $10 billion of investors’ money. The illegal action like cases of MicroStrategy and Xerox has caused the declining public trust on stock markets and auditors (AFL-CIO, 2007; Turner, 2002). 3. Bankruptcy and Insurance The case of Enron, WorldCom and other accounting scandals still leave public with many questions regarding the way the companies try to recover from the scandals especially when it comes to fair treatment for the hurt employees. The term â€Å"fair† refers to equal treatment for CEO and their workers. Remember the shocking Enron case a few months ago that many of people fail to recognize what went wrong at Enron, an energy-trading giant and once the seventh-largest company in U.S. The lawsuits and official investigations on Enron show that the bankruptcy has sent more than 6,100 of Enron employees into unemployment. In addition, it also causes serious fault at workers’ health care and retirement savings—for many, their life savings—because worker 401(k) plans were halted while the company stock price tumbled (AFL-CIO, 2007). Although the company’s performance went bankrupt, however, the Enron’s executive still obtain bonus checks for more than $55 million, in addition to $50 million in bonuses just weeks earlier. The Enron’s case is one example of increasing â€Å"pay gap† between CEOs and workers (AFL-CIO, 2007). Moreover, she also points out that the Project 911 turned out to give many benefits for Enron’s management instead of giving benefits for workers. In the Project 911, Enron was to pay the company’s executives $105 million worth of bonuses prior to the company’s bankruptcy filing in December 2001 (Steffy, 2005). However, according to the new bankruptcy law, which President Bush signed in April, a company might give their executives excessive compensation in the form of retention bonuses only if they have another job offer. It means that under new law, executives will not be paid to stay until they show proof they intend to leave (Steffy, 2005) The new law had driven the bankruptcy court to approve $38.2 million in additional retention bonuses in 2002 and another $29 million in 2003. The situation soon raises critics since the come with an inherent paradox. At the management level, the company took questioned decision to reward the very few people who drove the company into collapse. In other words, Enron was enticing a failed management to stay (Steffy, 2005). This situation refers to moral crisis since the company was paying attention to bonuses for the company’s executives instead of taking care of their employees. Although the case of Enron has become symbol of wrong model of corporate America, few observers expect it to become a lasting symbol (Ivanovich, 2002). In short, the first thing American companies should do is providing variable compensation scheme in which employees’ benefits will increase as the companies’ benefits increase as well. Therefore, employees will fee fairly treated and in turn increase their motivation. 4. Employment Law The cases on Enron and WorldCom present new atmosphere regarding the employment law since it involves whistle blower, a person who disclose the scandals. Since whistle blowing leads to negative impact for the blower, it is imperative that any person that intends to whistle blowing to do it effectively. Sherron Watkins, the person who discloses the scandals at Enron, is one example of whistle blower. In addition, whistle- blowing also greatly affects the executives of a company who are given information from an employee. In order to protect the whistle blower, Sarbanes-Oxley Act rule out there should be no discrimination against employees who disclose the wrongdoing in a company (Hails, n.d.). Amidst the fierce situation at Enron, Congress is still busy passing new laws in response to the latest news about corporate misdeeds. In fact, this is really not the best solution to the problem of corporate fraud at Enron.    Considering that whistle blowing leads to negative impact for the blower as it happens at Enron case, it is imperative that any person that intends to whistle blowing to do it effectively. Below is guideline that helps an employee to determine whether a situation merits whistle blowing: a) Magnitude of consequences A person intends to conduct whistle blowing consider the impact of a action that he consider as wrongdoing. If only one person will be harmed by an action, it does not call for any whistle blowing action (England, 2007) b) Probability of effect The person must be sure that a wrongdoing happens or will happen that requires for whistle blowing. If he is not sure about the situation, he had better not perform whistle blowing (England, 2007) c) Temporal immediacy The person must think the urgency to whistle blowing. If he considers it is urgent to prevent greater losses, he can conduct whistle blowing immediately (England, 2007) In addition, lots of accounting scandals incidences have driven NYSE to issue new guidelines intended to enhance the accountability and integrity and of NYSE-listed companies by strengthening the corporate governance and disclosure practices of those companies. Harvey Pitt, SEC chairperson, the person behind the birth of the guidelines, asks NYSE to review its corporate governance listing standards. Based on the facts, since most scandals involve insider, therefore senior managers should personally liable for criminal charges and damages. Concerning this issue, congress also has passed the Sarbanes Corporate Accountability Bill that one of its main provisions includes the fact that the chief executive officer and chief financial officer now have to sign off on a company’s financial records and may assume criminal liability if they are wrong. Under such circumstances, in the event that such scandals exist, investors and employees should not bear the responsibility for their own actions. This is because in this developed economy, people from all over the world have been willing to invest in ‘pieces of paper’ because of a basic trust that there are systems in place to make the ‘pieces of paper’ valuable. Therefore, it is the government’s responsibility to maintain people trust to invest in a piece of paper by providing an oversight system that works to protect the investor. Learning from these events, it is government’s responsibility to improve standards, controls and accountabilities. While companies should improve their employees moral in order to prevent any financial scandals in the future. This is imperative since most business schools lack of morality in their curriculum.

Curriculum Design Essay

Chapter 7 ASCD Yearbook Fundamental Curriculum Decisions, 1984 People cannot intelligently discuss and communicate with others about curriculum without first making very clear what their interpretation of a curriculum is. In this chapter, we will be thinking of a curriculum as a written plan for the educational program of a school or schools. Curriculum design them will consist of those considerations haying to do with the contents, the form, and the arrangement of the various elements of a curriculum. We distinguish between curriculum planning and instructional planning with curriculum planning being the antecedent task. Curriculum planners are forced to make design decisions almost from the outset of their work. The design decisions revolve around three important considerations: (1) the range of school levels and schools to be covered by the curriculum, (2) the number of elements to be included in the curriculum, and (3) the nature and scope of each of those elements. Each of these requires additional explanations. Decisions about the range of school levels and schools to be covered by the curriculum normally are mot very complicated, and the range usually coincides with the sphere of authority of the board of education. Districts may elect to plan a curriculum from kindergarten through grade 12; they may elect to plan one curriculum for the elementary schools and one for the secondary schools; or they may elect to direct each school unit to plan its own curriculum. Planning groups will have to decide about the number of elements to be included in the curriculum. Among the options for inclusion are: (1) a statement of goals or purposes, (2) a statement of document intent and use, (3) an evaluation scheme, and (4) a body of culture content selected and organized with the expectancy that if the culture content is judiciously implemented in classrooms through the instructional program, the goals or purposes for the schools will be achieved. To this list, some would add suggested pupil activities, instructional materials, and so forth, but these matters belong more rightfully in the domain of instructional planning and we will not consider them here. A few comments about each of these four elements will be helpful to the reader in understanding their import for curriculum decisions. Most curriculum writers would agree that it is desirable to include a statement of goals or purposes to be achieved by schools through the implementation of the planned curriculum. They may disagree as to what the goals ought to be, or they may disagree about the degree of specificity of the statements to be included. The most famous statement of goals or purposes for schools became known as the Seven Cardinal Principles of Education as formulated by the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Schools in 1918. They were health, command of the fundamental processes, worthy home membership, vocation, civic education, worthy use of leisure, and ethical character. There is less consistency among curriculum writers in terms of their insistence upon including a statement of document intent and use in a curriculum, and, in practice many curricula do not contain such statements. Curricula have, in the past, contained statements intended to reveal the philosophy or point of view of the planners but this is not what we mean by a statement of document intent and use. A statement of document intent and use should be forthright and direct about such matters as: (1) how teachers are expected to use the curriculum as a point of departure fur developing their teaching strategies, (2) the fact that the curriculum is the official educational policy of the board of education, (3) the degree of universality in expectancy with regard to the discretion of teachers in implementing the curriculum, and (4) the degree to which teachers are to be held accountable for the implementation of the curriculum. These are illustrative of the kind of statement that may be formulated, but each planning group will have to decide on the number and character of such statements. With the amount of emphasis put upon curriculum evaluation in recent years, some mandate with respect to the curriculum evaluation is a very reasonable option for inclusion in a curriculum. The most common method of pupil evaluation used in the past has been the standardized (norm referenced) achievement test. In most cases, there were no deliberate attempts to relate published curricula to the test batteries. Therefore, any leap in assumption about the directness of the relationship between curriculum content and whatever was measured by the tests was likely to be untenable. All the more reason for formalizing an evaluation scheme by including it in the curriculum. In one form or another, a curriculum must include a body of culture content that has been deemed by the planners and directing authorities to be important for schools to use in fulfilling their roles as transmitters of culture to the oncoming generations of young people. The basic curriculum question is, and always has been, that of what shall be taught in schools, and a major function of a curriculum is to translate the answer to that question into such forms that schools can fulfill their commitment and demonstrate that they leave done so. Most of the remainder of this chapter is devoted to discussion of this element of a curriculum; so we will leave it at this point. But it should be made clear that from these options as potential elements of a curriculum, there emerge two dimensions of curriculum design. One is the choice of and the arrangement of the elements to be included in the curriculum. The other is the form and arrangement of the contents of each of the elements internally. The design problem is greatest in the case of the form and arrangement of the culture content and it is the one most frequently discussed under the heading of curriculum design by curriculum writers past and present. . Culture Content-Knowledge-Curriculum Content A curriculum is an expression of the choice of content selected from our total culture content and, as such, it is an expression of the role of the school in the society for which the school has been established to serve. A word needs to be said here about the meaning associated with the expression â€Å"culture content.† Ralph Linton provided us with a classical and very useful definition of â€Å"culture.† He stated: â€Å"A culture is the configuration of learned behavior and results of behavior whose component elements are shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society† (1945, p. 32). The term â€Å"society† is ordinarily used to refer to a group of individuals who live together with common norms and shared frames of reference. Societies tend to generate their own culture and to transmit that culture to oncoming generations within that society. So long as societies and their cultures remained in a primitive state, their cultures were simple and could be transmitted to oncoming generations by direct contact between the young and the older members of the society. But as societies became more complex and the scope of their culture content increased so that the transmission of the culture content to the young could no longer be accomplished by direct contact in daily living, societies were forced to create institutions to take on the responsibility for all or part of the cultural transmission task. The school is one of those institutions. The church is another. Both of these institutions have unique roles to play in society, and they tend to transmit different culture content to the young. Parochial schools tend to do both. As Smith indicated in Chapter 3 of this Yearbook (not in this reading – JG), the culture content selected to be included in the curriculum of the school may be thought of as equivalent to the knowledge to which school students are to be exposed. In any case, it is critically important to be aware that not all culture content, or knowledge, accumulated by society comes under the purview of the school; curriculum planning is a process of selecting and organizing culture content for transmission to student by the school. The process is very complex, involving input from many sources, but the organized end-result of the process is the design of the curriculum. The most sophisticated mode of organization of culture content for purposes of teaching is reflected by the various disciplines such as history, chemistry, or mathematics. In addition to the established and recognized disciplines, school subjects have been created out of conventional wisdom m the applications of selected portions of the disciplines to applied areas of our culture such as vocational subjects, social studies, or reading and handwriting. In general, the separate subject organization of culture content has predominated in curriculum design. Another way of speaking about curriculum content is to refer to cognitive content, skill content, and value or attitudinal content. As Smith discussed more fully in Chapter 3, all three types of content represent knowledge in some from either in the form of direct knowledge or a knowledge base. The three forms have been used as a classification schema or a taxonomy for curriculum content formulation. Historic Curriculum Design Conflicts One must realize that tire basic curriculum question is, and always has been, one of what shall be taught in the schools. An immediate corollary to that question has been that of how shall what has been chosen to be taught in the school be organized so as to best facilitate the subsequent decisions about teaching and learning. Those two questions are the primary curriculum questions, and the organized decisions made in response to them culminate in a curriculum design. A few reflections about our curriculum past will illustrate settle of the conflicts in curriculum design that have taken place. In her study, Sequel observed that curriculum as we use the term today was not a subject of professional discussion until after 1890 (1966, p. 1). Rugg contended that decisions about curriculum content prior to the 20th century were decided primarily by textbook writers and textbook publishers (1926, Pp. Ill-11). It was not until 1918 that Bobbitt wrote the first definitive work on curriculum and since that time curriculum writers have directed their attention to the substance and organization of curriculum content (curriculum design) and to the processes of curriculum planning, implementing, and evaluating. By the early 1900, the stage had been set for the separate subjects organization of the culture content to be used in schools. In our very early elementary or primary schools, for example, pupils were taught to read, to write, and to compute; the subjects were called reading, writing, and arithmetic. Much later such subjects as geography, history, and civics were added to the curriculum. In our early secondary schools, pupils were taught a selection of subjects (disciplines) that were directly associated with the disciplines taught at the college or university. Even though the separate subjects organization of culture content was used before curriculum became an area of professional study, it is still with us. True, subjects have ben added and others altered, but it remains the dominant approach to curriculum design. The separate subjects mode of curriculum design has been significantly challenged only once in our history. That challenge came with the advent of the Progressive Education movement. A principal belief of the Progressive Education movement was its dramatic emphasis on the learner in school settings. A substantial portion of the Progressive emphasis on the learner was stimulated by John Dewey’s (1916) call for more active and less passive learning in schools. This focus on the learner when applied to the organization of curriculum content led to endeavors remove away from the separate subjects organization of tire curriculum content. The movemen away from the separate subjects organization (sometimes called subject-centered) was toward the integration, or fusion, of subjects under the assumption that such integration would not only facilitate learning on the part of pupils but would additionally make the knowledge, skills, and attitudes more easily available to the pupils in post-school life (the transfer problem). The basic process involved here was the fusion of the contents of two or more of the separate subjects into another organization in which the individual subjects lost their separate identities. As one might expect, names were associated with the various integration or fusion attempts. Figure 1 adapted from Hopkins (1941, p. 18) illustrates the variety of names associated with curricula resulting from integrative or fusion processes. Hopkins here polarized the subject curriculum and the experience curriculum. The broad fields curriculum was placed in the center so as to show that it had a reasonable num ber of the characteristics of the two extremes. Others as indicated on either side depending on emphasis. Space in this volume will not permit extensive description of curricula developed as part of the efforts to move away from separate subjects organization. The best we can do here is to identify some of them and cite sources for further investigation on the part of the reader. For example, in their hook The Child-Centered School, Rugg and Shumaker (1928) presented brief descriptions of the curricula of the Lincoln School, The Frances Parker School, and others of that time. In most cases, the curricula were built around child-centered units of work, but attention was focused as needed on such basic subjects as reading, mathematics, history, geography, and so forth. One of the most extreme departures from separate subjects organization was proposed by Stratemeyer and others (1957). The authors proposed the â€Å"persistent life situations† concept as a basis for dealing with the curriculum building issues of scope, sequence, continuity, balance, and depth. At the junior and senior high school levels, special mention should be made of the core curriculum. The core curriculum idea was to get away from nothing but the discipline-centered curriculum. Most core programs were organized around larger and more flexible blocks of time, and the content was generally centered on personal and social problems and problems of living. In many respects the core curriculum idea was an attempt to solve the general education problem in our upper schools. It is important to note that in practice in schools, curriculum design failed to get very far away from the subject- or discipline-centered design. The most lasting effect of the movement was the broad fields idea as represented by social studies, language arts, and general science, and they have persisted mostly in curricula for elementary and junior high schools. Contemporary Arguments About Curriculum Design Probably the most persistent movement in curriculum design in recent years has been the proposed use of specific behavioral objectives as a basis for curriculum organization. Curriculum writers have long proposed that curricula ought to contain statements of goals or objectives, but not as the only content of a curriculum. Some contemporary writers have proposed that curricula should be thought of in terms of the anticipated consequences of instruction, or intended learning outcomes. (For example, see Popham and Baker, 1970; Johnson, 1977). The culture content in such cases would either be implied in the objectives or be considered as an instructional decision. A distinct advantage of this type of curriculum design is that supervision of the implementation and of the evaluation of the curriculum is simplified and facilitated. Such proposals are in direct contrast to a proposal that a curriculum should he composed in four parts: (1) a statement of goals, (2) an outline of the culture content that has the potential for reaching the goals, (3) a statement of the intended use of the curriculum, and (4) a schema for the evaluation of the curriculum (Beauchamp, 1981, p. 136). They are in even greater contrast to those who would include instructional considerations such as suggested activities for learners and instructional materials to be used. Curriculum planners should be warned that the inclusion of all of these things produces fat and unmanageable curricula. With respect to the culture content of curricula, two organizational concepts persist both in the literature and in the practice of writing curricula. The first is the tendency to continue with the basic framework of the subjects, or disciplines, that are to be taught. The second is to break the subject areas down into three identifiable components: (1) cognitive, (2) inquiry and skill, and (3) affective (value, moral, attitudinal). Curriculum planners will probably wish to begin their thinking about design with the familiar, which will unquestionably be the conventional school subjects. They will consist of mathematics, social sciences (including social studies as a subject), the natural sciences, fine and applied arts, health and physical education, communications, and other languages. At the secondary school level, planners will add to these whatever vocational and technical subjects they may wish to offer. Some planners will wish to add an area that may be termed social problems, molar problems, or problems of living that may call for applications of elements learned in various conventional subjects. Curriculum planning is an educative process. For this reason classroom teachers should be involved in the undertaking. A very important reason for their involvement is that the process of curriculum planning presents an opportunity for them to engage in analysis of the culture content so that they may be more effective in their classrooms at the level of instruction. The analytic process of breaking down the culture content into cognitive, affective, and inquiry and skill components is one way that teachers may become mote knowledgeable about what they do. Also in this process of analyzing the culture content, the content is more specifically related to goals and at the same time it fosters better curriculum implementation. For these reasons, teachers’ participation in curriculum deliberations has been proposed frequently as a needed dimension of continuous teacher education. In Chapter 3, Smith raised the very important question of the utility of the culture content selected to be part of the curriculum content, and he posed several ways in which the utility of knowledge can be emphasized. In a more specific vein, Broody, Smith, and Burnett (1964) suggested on, potential uses of learnings acquired in school to he taken into consideration. They are the associative use, the replicative use, the applicative use, and the interpretive use (pp. 43-60). Very briefly, the associative use of knowledge refers to the psychological process of responding to a new situation with elements of knowledge previously acquired. The replicative use refers to situations that call for direct and familiar use of schooling such as when we read a newspaper, write a letter, or balance a checkbook . The applicative use occurs when an individual is confronted with a new problem and is able to solve the new problem by the use of knowledge acquired in the study of school subjects through previous experience in solving problems demanding similar applications. The interpretive use of schooling refers to the orientation and perspective the individual brings to new situations because the individual has acquired ways of conceptualizing and classifying experience. Much of the discussion about uses of schooling (especially use external to the school) is an elaboration of the transfer problem that has plagued educators ever since Edward Thorndike first set forth his theory of transfer through the existence of identical elements in 1908. The most easily explained is the replicative use as described above because of the direct similarity between the use external to the school and the mode of learning and practice in school. Take reading for example. Reading from school materials is directly similar to reading of materials outside the school. But when it comes to applying knowledge or making new interpretations or associations between knowledge required in school and life situations external to schools, a more complicated transfer situation exists. Unfortunately, many of the questions raised about utility and uses of schooling have not been answered through curriculum design. Nor are they likely to be because so much is dependent upon classroom teaching technique and the design of instructional strategies. The best efforts in curriculum design have been through the generation of new courses (subjects if you please) in which the content is purportedly more like life external to the school. Reference here is made not only to specialized courses such as technical, vocational, commercial and occupational courses but also to courses designed around molar problems, problems of living, and core programs. In many respects, the broad fields courses were designed for purposes of saving time during the school day and to facilitate the transfer of knowledge acquired. But whatever the curriculum design, if teachers are not aware of and sensitive to the kind of analyses of the content to be taught as we have been discussing it, the uses of schooling will not be maximized. All the more reason why teachers should be part of the curriculum planning effort and participate in the required dialogue. In summary, then, what courses of action with respect to curriculum design appear to be the most appropriate for today’s curriculum planners? The most important aspect of curriculum design is the display to be made of culture content once the content has been selected. The total amount of culture content is constantly growing thus making the problem of selection for curriculum content more difficult as time goes on. Unquestionably, the role of those schools (elementary and secondary) that operate under compulsory school attendance laws must constantly be examined in terms of what they should or should not offer in their curricula. The elementary school curriculum has always been designed with general education in mind. In our contemporary society, the secondary school seems to be moving in that same direction. Both, however, have seen fit to divide the content selected into realms or courses as appropriate. Scope and sequence have long been two major problems in curriculum design. The display of course content into topical outline is one way planners can watch for discrepancies in scope and sequence. It also helps with horizontal articulation among the various subjects. To help teachers generate greater insight into the content outline, it is desirable that the curriculum design reveal the expected cognitive, inquiry or skill, and affective outcomes. These are conventionally arranged in the design of the content in parallel with the topics in the outline. flow behaviorally the outcomes are to be stated is optional to the planners. These outcomes should also be thought of in terms of any goals or purposes that may be stated in the curriculum. What else to include in the design is optional to the plan. It has become quite conventional to think of goals or purposes first and then to select the content. Such procedure is quite arbitrary because all content is selected with some purpose in mind. Nonetheless, a statement of goals and purposes is a useful element in curriculum design. I would add to the topic outline and the expected outcomes a directive statement about the intended use to be made of the curriculum and a statement outlining a scheme for evaluating it.

Process writing <How to Prepare for going abroad> Essay

Process writing - Essay Example s possible because when one compares the same with the old days, various transportation mechanisms were not there which have now been developed such as cars, aircrafts and vessels. Besides, there’s a saying ‘the world is one.’ So, in this sense, going to another place has become more convenient than ever. Thus, there are a lot more chances to travel or to go on a business. However, we do not go to new places without preparation. Before leaving, preparation is the most important thing to do. Without it, the travel or the business would be ruined. There are a few things to be prepared beforehand. First is to gather up the information about the destination, second is to make reservation, third is to pack and then all good to go. Initially, looking up for the destination is a must and the most basic thing to do before one leaves. There is a Korean saying ‘you know it more, you see it more’. This means if you are knowledgeable about something there are more chances to appreciate what you are seeing and you get to know deeper about it. In order to gather information about the destination, you can either look up on the internet or the tour guide book. Then, what you need to do is to choose the exact destination. Even for the smaller areas it gets different from one another. For instance, the weather in Seoul and Gyoungi is different even though they are close to each other. Moreover, you have to know about the people there. People are all different with one another but usually people can be different due to where they live. For example, Americans seem to be more open-minded than people in other cultures but at the same time Americans tend to be more conservative too. On the other hand, people in British are conservative yet more open-minded. So, knowing how the people are in the area is important to appreciate it. In the end, it is always appropriate to understand that going abroad could both be risky and beneficial in the long run. Since it involves

Business at the Base of the Pyramid Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Business at the Base of the Pyramid - Essay Example 4). Survival for companies, at the base of the pyramid, directly hinges on the level of innovation that is put into the products (Prahaland 2002, p. 5). Achieving new levels of capital efficiency is a pre-requisite to profitable operation at the base of the pyramid (The European Alliance 2008, p. 11). The emphasis of business structure remodeling should be to produce innovative product using innovative means. This in turn necessitates the need to adopt innovative manufacturing processes. The guiding principle that should be adopted is the production of commodities that aid the community in meeting its development objectives (The European Alliance 2008, p. 10). The simple fact is that positioning a product to enhance the lives of the poor has a variety of advantages, chief of which is the financial advantages that will accrues from this approach (London 2007, P.9). The approach that should be adopted by the firms, which focus on the bottom of the pyramid, should entail employing an in novative manufacturing process, which will reduce the overall cost of production. This is in line with the fact that operating at the bottom of the pyramid entails lowering of prices and repackaging products into financially friendly units. This is best exemplified by the approach adopted by HLL India (Prahaland 2002, p. 6). The firm launched a new product called Wheel which essentially reduced the ration of oil to water in their detergent. When this was coupled with the low cost pricing strategy that they had set up, the result was a booming product which appealed to the poor consumer. This then ushers in the point of distribution. In order to target, effectively, the bottom of the pyramid, there must be systems that have been put in place, to ensure that the distribution mechanisms are able to access, effectively, the poor people (Prahaland 2002, p. 5). The lack of equitable wealth distribution restricts the poor to the sidelines of the global economy. This is regardless of the ve rity that they comprise a significant portion of the population. The status and nature of the poor makes it extremely difficult to reach via the conventional models that have reigned supreme using traditional business models (International Finance Corporation 2007, p. 3). The appropriate structure should be to position sales points to the small outlets, which are frequently used by the poor. These small outlets are characteristics of the dwellings of the poor. As such, should constitute as sales points for the business models of the bottom of the pyramid. Efficient distribution systems have greater potential of providing to large and untapped market. The largest being sourced from the rural poor. As such, with models that encompass structuring distribution points in the rural areas are better placed to tap these large and exponentially growing markets (Schrader, Freimann and Seuring 2012, p. 289). This is best done by structuring the business model to bring the product closer to the customer (The European Alliance 2008, p. 13). This in turn ushers in the need to check on the infrastructure. As such, this necessitates the need to incorporate NGOs and the government into a mutually benefitting partnership (The European Alliance 2008, p. 10). Aside from this, another vital aspect, to take into consideration is

Weather Forecast Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Weather Forecast - Assignment Example The snowfall prediction is also above average. The experts on this website use a simple method of Persistence which is usually used for both short and long term forecasts. The persistence method depends upon the presence of a stagnant weather pattern. They claim to have an accuracy of around 82%. The experts from the third web site predicted that the winter of 2011-2012 would be extreme than the normal with more than usual snowfall. The reason for this prediction is that the state of Michigan had experienced a longer summer than usual. The scientists from this website predict their weather by the occurrence of abnormally warm or cold ocean waters and of abnormally high or low atmospheric pressures could be interrelated in vast global connections. The accuracy to which this website works with is 85%. It can be concluded from the research that the state of Michigan will experience a winter worse than what they usually encounter. They might experience some discomfort because of an unforgiving winter with above average snowfalls and blizzards every

Should the government be neutral in matters of conscience by jerry Essay

Should the government be neutral in matters of conscience by jerry mills - Essay Example The importance and relevance of neutral government The main idea of the article lies in the fact that there should be strict separation between the church and secular laws in order to eliminate unjustified oppression on people’s conscience and provide all the conditions for personal liberty and human natural rights realization. Law making and church should act in accordance with each other to help people understand what is right and what is wrong in our world (Mills). If the church imposes definite things and the laws does not even try to disprove them, such situation prevents people from good understanding what is good and evil and can’t help form right principles with the youth. Jerry Mills presents several arguments to support his point of view, which are mainly based on previous works by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson (Mills). According to Madison, neutral government should strive for establishing common morality. At the same time the social system is supposed t o provide such human rights as individualism, opportunity and stability (Mills). In his draft ‘Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments’, Madison provided quite well-reasoned explanation for the necessity of division between state and church power: religious liberty is considered to be a part and parcel of human natural rights and it should be completely free of civil legislature; religions are not in need for any civil support: there are a lot of historical examples when religion arised in response to certain opposition, not support of legal laws (Mills). In order to demonstrate horrible consequences, which church and state relationship caused, Thomas Jefferson described Virginian law about Quakers, which stated that in case Quakers refused to take an oath of adherence to the Crown, they were exiled from the state, imprisoned or even sentenced to execution (Mills). The author’s ultimate goal is to create a civil system, which would allow for moral pluralism without domination of leading factions. There are two ways how governments could deal with factions: the first method suggests that government removes the reasons, which evoked the fraction existence by making people believe in one thing; the second method is associated with neutral government, which is supposed to control the effects of factions’ activities (Mills). Such social regime implies government tolerance of citizens’ adverse interests and views. According to Mills, the main task of ‘sufficiently neutral’ government is supposed to be the promotion of democracy, control and restriction of dominating factions’ invasion into other communities (Mills). Conclusions The main question of the article is about the role and influence of government in human life. Even in our modern democratic world, there is no common consent about the extent to which government could or should intervene in social activities without putting any restrictions on human freethinking. We assume the Mills’ arguments against church and state consolidation are relevant and support his point of view about importance of establishing ‘sufficiently neutral’ government, which would interfere into social and personal life of citizens to acceptable extent and

Don't Let Your Baby Blues Go Code Red & Sometimes It's Better Just to Coursework

Don't Let Your Baby Blues Go Code Red & Sometimes It's Better Just to Do Less Harm - Coursework Example For example, stories of Lindsay Lohan going to rehab due to drug abuse was highly publicized and people followed closely her treatment process. In the same way, when Brooke Shield wrote about her battle with postpartum depression, the topic generated a lot of public opinion. According to Brody, although postpartum depression is experienced by approximately 20 percent of women, many of these women do not get treatment for this condition (7). I agree with the observation that very few women seek treatment for postpartum depression, mainly because such women are afraid of being branded as bad mothers. As Brody writes, no mother wishes to have experience postpartum depression (7). Rather, the risk factors for postpartum depression include such experiences as complicated labor, problems with a previous pregnancy, and lack of support from family and friends (7). In my opinion, all the cited risk factors are legit considering that such experiences can cause a person develop certain fears especially towards the baby and may even hurt the baby unwillingly, thus the need for psychotherapy services to enable new mothers deal with the postpartum phase. Appearing in the New York Times, â€Å"Sometimes It’s Better Just To Do Less Harm† is an article by Richard Friedman which addresses the hard decisions that doctors have to make with regard to treatment, in terms of trying to risk lesser harm for the purpose of avoiding greater harm (5). Friedman seems to be of the opinion that the first rule of â€Å"do no damage† is not at all times applicable. I hold a similar opinion considering that in some instances, such as being forced to amputate a completely shuttered hand is considerably lesser harm than risking an infection of the entire arm. Friedman proceeds to give an example of Larry, an overweight smoker who has tried quitting smoking but has failed (5). When Larry talks to his doctor about smoking, he speaks in such a dreamy tone, telling of how

British History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

British History - Essay Example If we are questioning identity, then perhaps it is not proper to talk about how the empire talks of the great European question rather the commonwealth of these three so called nations if that will be correct. How can such an empire stand if until now, it has still no clear view of what an Empire should be and or how it should be perceived by the surrounding nations. As of now, Canada, Australia and some parts of Africa are seen to be an extension of the empire's blood. In on way or so, it is also proper to say that somehow, empire has an impact in the Britishness of the people. People will ask how exactly did it form an imperial and national ethic and is the wrapping of flag to these three nations even worth it Others say it is just a propaganda, others say the empire is trying and haggling over this goal to reach unity for identity. Dennis Judd from the University of London in his article entitled Britain: The Land Before Hope and Glory stated a very significant message as he tried to describe this longing for identity and the search for unity. To be clear, he said: The Celtic involvement in the British imperial mission was, however, often ambivalent, and sometimes downright obstructive. After all, it was the English who had claimed the hegemony of the British Isles, and who had in one way or another subdued, conquered or incorporated the three Celtic nations. Although Scotland was arguably the most independent and self-sufficient of these, the role was more that of junior partner than equal, despite the apparent willingness with which the Scottish people entered the Union by negotiation in 1707. The Welsh, however, were far more clearly a dispossessed nation, driven from the prosperous lowlands of England by the Anglo-Saxon invaders in the wake of the Roman retreat, and the Irish were even more palpably a conquered people, although here the equation was complicated by the passionate pro-Unionism of the Protestant minority in the northern counties. (Judd, page 1) It is then easier to understand and easier to say that the idea and or ideology of empire is the one that keeps these three united nations kicking and striving for commonwealth. It is also the same ideology that boosts power to gain more in the globalized world. This is the thing they also call as commercial empire, something that the people would understand and know as an advantage and a merit for embracing this ideology. And if in the old years of existence, India was the main source of employment, during the beginning of this imperialization of Britain, there came new chance for people in the area. New jobs and better lives were facing people from their front doors. The Empire has also made known its strong military force that is equivalent to Russia or Germany. Despite all these forms of development which came around the empire, still there are also ideas that came about promoting an opposite term of effect to the imperialism. In one way or at some point, the empire was seen to be spreading its power by first having faithful nationalism and one soul within them. This is not solely for the purpose of attaining peace and unity within a country like the typical saying goes, instead this is to brag around the world that

Public Policy Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Public Policy Analysis - Assignment Example The strength of this framework lies in that it takes into consideration, all the actors at play, and their mutual dynamics, in a given policy situation. The shortcomings in the prevailing, stages heuristic theory, the problems with both â€Å"top-down and bottom-up approaches†, and the lacunae in the existing theories with respect to â€Å"scientific and technical information† had prompted the birth of the Advocacy Coalition Framework (Weible, Sabatier and McQueen, 122). This theory has looked at policy change as an attribute of several factors, namely, science and technology, time span, â€Å"policy subsystems†, and individual â€Å"beliefs† (Weible, Sabatier and McQueen, 122). It is the collective action of different advocacy groups that form into a temporary coalition on a specific issue (even if these groups differ among them on other issues) that is projected as a catalyst for policy change, according to this theory (Birkland, 300). Both the subsystem events and changes in the external policy environment have been viewed by this framework as to cause policy change (Weible, Sabatier and McQueen, 123-4). ... The basic notion of this theory has been that â€Å"individuals- acting alone, or within organizations- are utility-maximizing, rational individuals who are goal-oriented and use near-perfect information to weigh a range of options before adopting the optimal choice based on their calculation of costs and benefits† (Birkland, 302). This is a rule-based framework (where rules are implicit rather than binding), where policy changes are determined by â€Å"encompassing efficiency, equity, accountability, â€Å"conformance to general morality†, (†¦), and adaptability† (Birkland, 304). From this theoretical perspective, the actors who bring about policy change are acting either â€Å"as individuals or as groups functioning as a corporate actor† (Warne, 20). This theory has also envisaged a three tier process of policy creation/change, the tiers being, â€Å"operational tier (†¦) collective tier (†¦) (and) constitutional tier† (Warne, 20-21 ). My personal experiences and understanding of public policy suggest that the Advocacy Coalition Framework has succeeded in identifying the wider and specific aspects of policy making and integrating them beautifully, but it has failed to notice that all negotiations can happen only within the given legal and moral realm. On the other hand, the theory of Institutional Rational Choice has stressed the universal aspect of a policy choice. It has been successful in incorporating the coalition element of the Advocacy Coalition Framework, as one among its three tier model and has thus went beyond the Advocacy Coalition Framework to put forth a more comprehensive theoretical model. But all the same, the Institutional

Ethical objectivism and Kantian Ethics ar arguments to ethical Essay

Ethical objectivism and Kantian Ethics ar arguments to ethical relativism - Essay Example Even in the contemporary world there are a strong amount of arguments in favor of ethical relativism. Some of the most prominent such arguments are advanced by anthropologists whose job it is to go into a region and develop ethnographical research regarding a culture. While these perspectives are at times convincing specifically about more grey areas issues, on a large-scale it’s clear that they are shortsighted. When extended to universal aspects of all cultures, adopting an approach of ethical relativism could potentially be calamitous for humanity. In these regards, it is possible that one cultural paradigm conflicts with the subsistence of another culture. It follows that when one’s cultural paradigm infringes on the rights and existence of another cultural paradigm that there needs to be a means of further establishing ethical responsibility. A great number of ethical theories exist in contradistinction to the ethical relativist model, with the Kantian approach to ethics the most convincing. Kant argues that, â€Å"All moral statements should be general laws, which apply to everyone under and circumstances† (â€Å"Kant†). This notion, referred to as the categorical imperative, is the understanding that an ethical action must be that can be applied in a universal way; as such, this precludes many activities that would otherwise be condoned under an ethical relativist perspective. Another prominent notion within Kantian ethics is the notion of moral duty. Moral duty argues that an individual has the duty to obey innate moral laws (â€Å"Kant’s Moral Philosophy†). The articulation of ethical responsibility as rooted in innate moral laws characteristic of all humanity is antithetical to moral relativism. Rather ethics as functioning subjectively, they are innate and universal to all cultures. Ulti mately, adopting this Kantian is model is superior to the relativist approach as the former

The Social Security solution Essay Example for Free

The Social Security solution Essay The plan does not affect current retirees and those nearing retirement benefits for those now 55 or older would be untouched. Neither would it increase the retirement age above current law, increase payroll taxes or reduce annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs), now or in the future. We save Social Security by making two fundamental changes to the system for those now under 55. First, this plan changes the way first-time benefits will be calculated. These benefits now rise with overall wage growth. Under my plan, growth in initial benefits would be linked to the consumer price index. Initial benefits would still rise over time, only at a slower rate. Instead of rising 20 times over the next 75 years, they will increase by a factor of 10. Switching from wage indexing to price indexing will eliminate the unfunded liability of the Social Security system and allow us to avoid increasing the payroll tax for young workers. At the same time, future workers could count on receiving their benefits. Second, workers currently contribute 6. 2% of their wages to Social Security. My proposal allows workers under 55 the option of establishing their own personal savings accounts. Contributions into these accounts would range from 3. 5% of wages for low income workers to 1% for those at high income levels. Workers who choose to contribute to these accounts would have a variety of investment options and could withdraw proceeds upon retirement. But as they will be paying less into Social Security, their Social Security benefit will be slightly reduced. The basic Social Security benefit will be reduced by 25 cents on the dollar for each dollar they receive from their personal savings account. Nonetheless, the private investment account option should offer most recipients the opportunity for greater returns than Social Security alone could generate. Yes, we are asking some in the baby boom generation to insure the solvency of Social Security by making a sacrifice in terms of accepting a slightly lower initial benefit. An average 45-year-old male, for example, would receive about 1. 7% less under my plan, but look what happens in return. First, he is assured of receiving benefits because the solvency of Social Security is assured. More important, his children will receive far more in benefits. Under my plan a 25-year-old male who takes advantage of the personal savings account option should receive 19% more in benefits than promised under the existing system, based on historical averages for conservative investments. Todays retirees and those nearing retirement will receive their benefits just as they expected. Younger workers can not only count on receiving benefits, they will not have to worry about the prospect of working longer hours and paying increased payroll taxes that would otherwise be needed to keep the current system afloat. If they take advantage of the personal savings account option, theyll have more control over their own retirement resources and the opportunity for greater overall benefits than under our current Social Security system-even if it could pay all their promised benefits. Finally, and most important, my plan is honest and realistic. The problems facing Social Security have built up for so long and become so mammoth that everyone must realize they cannot just be wished away. This plan makes clear the costs and benefits, and it avoids false promises. If we are truly concerned about saving Social Security, there is no better plan than this one and no better time to start than today. If we face the challenge now, we can provide for our retirement security without sacrificing our childrens and grandchildrens standard of living. References Achenbaum, W. A. (1986). Social Security: Visions and Revisions. New York: Cambridge University Press Adams, P. (1990). Children as contributions in kind: Social security and family policy. Social Work, 35: 492-498. Buell, J. (1999). Avoiding generational war. Humanist, 59: 32-34. Hudson, R. (1999). The role of government in a society for all ages. Social Work, 24: 155-161. Kingston, E. R. and Schulz, J. H. (1997). (Eds. ) Social Security in the 21st Century. New York: Oxford University Press.

Transferable Personal Skills Development

Transferable Personal Skills Development Introduction: A better definition of transferable skills would include a wide range of different skills that are not only useful for a wide range of jobs, but will also equip students for a productive career as a research scientist. Critically evaluating data; being able to write clearly and effectively in a range of styles; communicating via formal presentations or the media; networking and managing your time effectively are skills that are useful in many different jobs. Building a core competency in these areas will also certainly make you a better scientist. It is also important to recognise that your role as a researcher will change dramatically as you progress from student, to research assistant and beyond. In this respect learning about the process of getting published; how to write grants that will get funded and how to manage finances and lead teams of scientist are all indispensable in smoothing the transition to become a Principal Investigator or PI. Although these might not seem to be the most transferable of skills, the everyday activities of a PI are so radically different from a student who works at the lab bench that it is effectively a completely different job. Communication Application of Number Information Technology Working with Others Improving Own Learning and Performance Problem Solving Time-management Research Public speaking Literature view: The Government is content for the Authority to mount a small scale pilot of different means of independently assessing these Key Skills. However, I remain sceptical about the feasibility of such independent assessment, and would see such work as having a lower order of priority than either the work on the first three Key Skills or on developing the wider Skills through Progress File. The transferable skills that employers identify tend to be those that support organisational performance. They may be identified as follows: Interpersonal skills Communication skills Self-management skills Intellectual skills It is easy to identify occupationally relevant skills acquired through training and education but much more difficult to pinpoint transferable skills. We are social animals and need the input from and interaction with others to function effectively as individuals. One of the most significant ways in which communication can influence individual behaviour is through its ability to change individual perceptions and perceptual bias. Transferable skills are important skills which individuals should possess, not only for the purpose of academic programmes of study, but also for that of operating effectively within ones job role in the workplace. Transferable skills can be seen to be that which are somewhat fundamental skills which benefit individuals with the task at hand. A good example of this is the ability to work well in a team- this is something which is important both when studying and having a job. Case study: PDP is a process of reflecting and recording my experiences to help me to make the most of my time at Guildhall. It provides a range of specific, targeted techniques that I can use to: gain new perspectives on my studies, career and life in general monitor and record my talents and achievements identify goals and plan my term-time study workload and/or my future career help me present my skills and accomplishments to prospective employers. The outcomes of PDP should be: greater understanding of how much progress Ive made in all areas of my course better understanding of my strengths and weaknesses by both me and my Tutor clearer understanding of what I need to do next agreement on setting goals and targets an action plan that summarizes all this. My academic studies, whilst being the primary part of my experience at Guildhall, are not the whole package. Some of the most significant changes Ill encounter will be in the area of personal development. My horizons geographical, cultural and intellectual will be broadened by the experience of studying in Guildhalls international environment, and by the extra-curricular activities and opportunities you choose to pursue. If this is my first time away from home, living and studying in Guildhall will encourage me to be more independent, self-confident, and resourceful, better at managing my time and your money, and better at working with others. In a word, more mature. If I are a mature student, I am already likely to have some experience of skills mapping, reflective practice, learning styles, career planning, CV and interview technique. The decision to return to education may have been step one of my career plan. It is still of benefit to reassess your goals from time to time. Very simply, acquiring basic competency across a range of transferable skills will make me better equipped for any career you chose to follow. Unless you are naturally gifted at everything you do, everyone can benefit from some well structured and focussed training courses. Its also clear that gaining a range of transferable skills is important in finding your next job. Several surveys of employers have found that although PhD graduates were technically proficient, highly motivated, and resourceful, they needed additional training on soft skills such as working in a team, communication, and career planning. Learning Outcome: If I say something about myself two years before I have come to London for studying with the different people in a different environment. At the begging time I had less able to communicate with the other countries people and another thing is that education system is different. Day by day I am trying to develop my communication skill. Besides, I am working a part time job in the Burger king which is most popular fast food shop in the Europe. I started there as a sales assistant. I have to communicate with the various kinds of customers. I have to manage so many situations. After few months later I become a Supervisor. I have to manage all my staff, ordering the delivery, receiving the delivery, managing the worst situation. So I can say communication skill and time managing those are the two most affect full transferable skill I have achieved to get the success. Always I try to attend in my class in time and my work place. That is why I can get the entire lesson in the class and I got the reputation in my work place because of time maintaining. I never be defocus depending on time management. Another thing is that for my well communication skill I can discuss about my study with teachers and my class mates as well as I can manage my all the staffs and the customers in the shop. Conclusion: In addition to these good reasons for spending some time acquiring transferable skills, I will also find that they are an important topic at the Institute. Indeed, I will hear your supervisor and the Education Support team mention transferable skills regularly. This is because there is now a requirement for students to spend ten days per year on transferable skills training and without doing this we cant complete our PhD.

The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow | Analysis

The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow | Analysis Legend of sleepy hollow is a kind of a short story which was written by Washington Irving. This story is based on a real legend and it reveals how the main character, Ichabod Crane, disappeared. It is such an effective story about the ghost in which Irving makes the audience to guess the truth beyond the matter after its end. The movie portrays the original story of Irving. At the beginning, the movie appears to be so similar to the story, but later changes to a direction different from the original plot. The real story begins in a small sleepy hollow town. It illustrates the good image containing beautiful scenery, bountiful crops together with thriving land owners. Ichabod is seen to be a local pedagogue who served as a teacher of the school house in his local area. Ichabod was recognized as a strict teacher who was quite common to the students families, more so to the families with pretty girls. In most of the fold evenings, he usually spent most of his time with the old windows that used to sit by a fire telling ghost and demon stories together with other supernatural beings. Among these stories, there was one of the legendary Headless Horseman, which was about a soldier shot off his dead by use of a cannon ball. On the horse, the ghost of this soldier redacted all over sleepy Hollow in search for his head. The head had been replaced by a Jack-o-lantern with such a fiery glow. This tale is associated with love story, or in other words, pure greed and lust story. Inchabod is found to be in love with Katrina Van Tassel. This is a girl belonging to the rich prosperous land owner, who was known as Hee Van Tessel. The pursuit of this girl by Ichabod is only for lustful and physical reasons. He is intended to be rich and hence acquire both the estate of Van Tassel and the beauty of Katrina, an aspect that made him pursue her. Unfortunately, he could not easily achieve this as Brom Van Brunt, a guy who was very handsome stood on his way. Brom was recognized for his pranks together with his act of trouble making as he rode his horse Dare Devil. Indeed, he was in love with Katrina and could not give any chance for Ichabod to marry her. On one night, Ichabod was on his way back home after attending a dance at the Van Tessel Estate. He passed through the dark woods crossing the path to his home using his old horse. Here, a headless figure emerged from the dark shadows shocking him. Ichabod ran towards the covered bridge trying to escape. Here, the horse man was expected to get into a fire burst. Unexpectedly, ichabod was flanged by the figure with its pumpkin head. The figure knocked him seriously felling him off his horse such that only remains of smashed pumpkin could be found left on the following day. At this state, Ichabod had disappeared. The story leaves all the readers in suspension reason of what went on. One could wonder, is it that Icabon was smashed into pieces or Brom marry Katrina after the disappearance of his opponent? And if so, was it the reason that made him to laugh every time pumpkin was mentioned? In respect to this, Tim Burton came up with personal vision about this legend of Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy hollow is a movie concerned about a detective, Ichabod Crane, who had a specific vision about solving crimes. Ichabod is sent to Sleepy Hollow which is a small local town. He is sent to give a solution for three people from the town. Arriving on the town, he comes across a girl known as Katrina with whom he falls in love. Brom is jealous of this. Looking at the two stories, they all begin in the same manner. The only difference is that here Ichabon appears as a detective trying to solve a mystery murder composing of three town people who had been cut their heads off and of which could not be found. The original tale of Irving is not included in this story, but highlights all what goes on. Brom is seen to pretend as the cloaked horseman. The story also introduces both witch craft and magic. The horse man is true demon behind these killings which serves under the control of witch. In this story, the greed and lust are different from the original story. They are based true witch and not in the mind of Ichabod, as the Stepmother of Katrina maintains personal reasons regarding revenging on sleepy Hollow town. The plot proves whether the horseman was real or not. The end of the story shows that Witch is killed for the sake of giving Ichabon a chance to win Katrina at the same time proving him as the hero of the story. In long run, Ichabod comes up with the solution. The headless head of horseman is brought back to him in whom he takes it back to hell together with the witch, thus overcoming the evil to prove the true twist of Hollywood. Both stories are similar in that they give the story of someone whose greed and lust ends to destruction. According to the original story, the desire of Ichabod for the estate leads him to follow after the girl, hence angers the local bully. He is destroyed by his greed. He loses both the land and the girl he aimed at. He is described to be such a greedy man capable of doing anything to meet his requirements. He is portrayed as decent man performing his missions well to fight for the rights of the people. In the story, the stepmother of Katrina is presented to be jealous. She is involved in supernatural acts in the aim of capturing all that she desires. Both stories leave us in suspense although Burton answers the questions raised. He has explained more of the ghost and supernatural demon controlled by the stepmother of Katrina. She used the headless horseman to revenge. She revenges not only to the family of Van tassel but also to all who controls the inheritance. Burton applies this line of the story to introduce the theme of greed, taking it away from Ichabod, the main character, qualifying him as the hero. The version of Washington Irving is quite appealing in both stories. He ends up applying suspense to create the imagination. He uses dark descriptions of the horseman and bright images for the town and Katrina. This is to enhance the imaginations of the readers. Despite that the two stories contains a main character that is helpless, the plot line of the movie is totally different from the original story. However, the theme presented in both is the same, that of a teacher. The original story leaves one in suspense wondering all what happened to Ichabod, while the movie leaves the audience wondering whether they can apply science to explain the event. There is a thought created by both in that we are left thinking of how demons and ghosts are possible. In conclusion, both stories end up leaving the reader with questions to answer. On top of having their similarities, they contain different ideas. They are made to be different stories by the difference in their story lines. Case Study: Mental Health Problems Case Study: Mental Health Problems The purpose of this assignment is to select a client with the diagnosis of enduring mental illness and carry out an assessment based on the presenting problem of the chosen patient and the psychosocial intervention during his treatment. From the assessment process, the problem identified will be considered along with patient coping strategy, stress, medication compliance and family intervention. The author will also identify intervention that aim to promote recovery with the patient. Gibbs (1988) Model of Reflection cited in Burns and Bulman (2000) will be utilised to evaluate the care of the patient. To maintain confidentiality and protect anonymity, a pseudonym of John will be given to the patient; this is in compliance to Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Code of Professional Conduct (2008). John is a 40 year old man of Africa Caribbean origin, living independently in the community. John experiences unpleasant and hostile auditory hallucinations mainly describing his actions and his thoughts. This normally happens when he is out of the house, in public places and at shops. He claims that he also hears these voices when alone and inactive at home usually in the evenings and at night. These experiences make him feel angry and frightened. John also experiences that other people can read his mind, this is particularly true of some teenagers in his neighbourhood whom he thinks are out to get him. He receives six hours support from the support workers every week to help maintain his mental health and independence as it is the organisations philosophy to provide this support in order to allow patients to continually work towards an ordinary life. John is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia because he suffers from stable delusions, usually accompanied by hearing voices and disturbance of perceptions (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV, 1994). The DSM IV, of Mental Health criteria for schizophrenia states that two or more of the above must be present for a significant period of time during one month period for a diagnosis to be made. John was previously admitted onto a psychiatric ward for eight months. Schizophrenia is a common disorder and has a devastating effect on sufferers and their families patients typicall y hear voices in their heads and hold bizarre beliefs. On discharge from the ward, John was offered accommodation where he could live independently with the support he wants in the community. John is the second of three children born from one father. Pregnancy and delivery were normal, and developmental milestones were accomplished on time. History of the patients father is unknown. Johns elder brother is in prison for robbery and the other has had a number of admissions to psychiatric hospital with diagnosis of schizophrenia. During assessment, John was described by his mother as a shy boy and reports never having any close friends and knew primarily the street boys he hung around with. He has had a sexual relationship with a neighbourhood girl in the past but never had a steady girl friend. John reports that he never liked school and dropped out in his early age. He has never worked and lived at home until his first admission into mental health hospital three years ago. His mother who has her own mental health problem (Depression) is his primary source of emotional support and his main carer. His medical history and examination proved him healthy as there was no record to show that he has suffered any serious aliment, however he admitted to poly drug use including alcohol, cannabis and crack cocaine. He currently smokes a pack of twenty cigarettes a day. His general health is good at this moment. Through observation and talking with John, it became apparent that he suffers from anxiety and low mood. Davis et al. (2007) stated that anxiety plays an important role in producing and maintaining dysfunction in schizophrenia but these symptoms are often overlooked or viewed as less important than the positive and negative symptoms. At present, John does not appear to be experiencing any symptoms of schizophrenia although his low mood and anxiety are something he expresses as hurdles he has to battle with on a daily basis. The medication he receives for anxiety and low mood seem not to be eliminating the symptoms he suffers, although the medications are being reviewed to determine the correct therapeutic dose he requires (Lieberman and Tasman, 2006). He lacks motivation and self esteem, and due to his level of anxiety he finds it difficult to enjoy the amenities within his local community. Full assessment to determine Johns mental health needs with specific assessments for his anxiety and low mood, where he can be supported to develop coping strategies which may assist his daily activities and engagement in activities where carried out. Assessment is an ongoing process which allows for all records and interventions to be current and up to date. Following an accurate and comprehensive assessment other elements of the nursing process such as planning, implementation and evaluation can be applied (Callaghan and Waldock, 2006). To carry out Johns care, the author carried out Krawiecka, Goldberg and Vanghu (KGV) assessment and one to one session in partnership with John and his main carer. The KGV Manchester Symptom Scale modified version 6.2 by Stuartand Lancashire (1998) is a global assessment tool that allow nurses to carry out an assessment of the service user to ascertain symptoms severity and incidence, and further to identify further ways forward in care delivery (Barker et al. 2003). By adopting this tool, the author was able to carry through the nursing process and assess to identify a broad overview of Johns needs, which aim to specific specifically clarify his problems, and assist in the nursing intervention aim to promote and enable recovery. Keke and Blashki (2006) state that mental health assessment includes symptoms, characteristics and psychological state as well as psychosocial factors applicable to the patient; consequently, the KGV is seen as an integral part of mental health assessment. This KGV tool is noted to be a global assessment tool that is used to assess an array of mental health problems, including intensity, severity and duration of symptoms within few weeks. It comprises fourteen items; the first six sections aimed at determining depression, anxiety, hallucinations, delusions, suicide and elevated mood and are based on a subjective description of their condition over the past few weeks. The other eight sections are based on the behaviour of the patient during assessment. This was fundamentally utilised as a starting point in assessing Johns mental health problems. The author was already aware of the issues relating to anxiety and depression although it was thought that at this point of the assessment, all aspect of Johns mental health needed to be reviewed; hence the use of KGV was an ideal tool to accomplish the task. With this tool, the author was able to recognise what symptoms John was experiencing and identify specific area of need which the author n eed to undertake to clarify the extent of the clients distress and symptoms. The KGV assessment tool does come with some limitation which is time consuming, though this time was spent in forming a therapeutic relationship with the patient, this is something that should be done over a series of interviews, taking in to consideration individuality of the patient and how long he can sustain interest and attention to the questions being asked. Engagement with a patient experiencing psychotic episode can extremely be problematic during assessment, like experiencing disturbances of thought, perception, mood and behaviour (Rigby, 2008). After completing a comprehensive assessment, screening tools were used to evaluate and measure severity of the identified symptoms (Stein, 2002). It was found that John was reporting issues of anxiety and depression; the author therefore decided to utilise the Beck Anxiety Inventory [BAI] by Beck (1987), to measure both psychological and cognitive component of anxiety (University of Pennsylvania, 2008), and also used the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI -1) Beck (1961) to determine the severity of depression. The BDI-1 and BAI are both self rating scale consisting of 21 items, in which patients rates the existence and severity of their presenting symptoms (Norman and Ryrie, 2005). The patient rates from 0-3, how best describes the way they have been feeling over the past few weeks and later summ ed up between 0-63. The author decided to use these scales on John to identify the severity of his anxiety and depression and was completed by him; it aims at promoting him as partner in his own care (NMC, 2008). It was also felt that both tools would enable the author to discuss problematic areas of Johns life rather than just engage in general conservation and additionally giving scope for appropriate intervention (Barker, 2003). Going through these assessment tools after the appropriate time scale will give him and the whole nursing team a report of the progress that has been achieved or any changes that can be worked on. The outcome of the screening tools used shows an indication of moderate anxiety and depression. During time spent with John, it was believed that his immediate needs in connection with these concerns were being met by the involvement of the staff and the support he receives from his mother (carer). Negative attitude by his carer about Johns diagnosis may be linked to lack of knowledge, skill or judgement (Duffin, 2003). This was not an issue for the staff providing him with professional support as all performed to a high standard offering him empowerment and informed choice, ensuring best practice in care delivery in Johns life (Department of Health, 2006). Psychosis has an enormous impact on the sufferers family and carers particularly in the first episode (Reed, 2008). Families are often distressed, confused, anxious and fearful of the patients behaviour, and what the future may hold for them as a family. The authors observation is that John was distressed and stigmatised by his family, their members presentation and behaviour and other peoples judgement about him and the family as a whole. The physical and emotional burden of care always falls on the family which may adds stress and anxiety, and attempt to come to terms with their own feelings of mental illness (Patterson et al, 2005). Families may often tackle the guilt for not recognising their beloved family members symptoms and distress earlier, while also recognising that the illness itself might procure financial burdens to the entire family. They also feel the burden of stigma of mental illness to deal with and Patterson (2005) hypothesises that families often perceive the patient as displaying odd behaviours deliberately and therefore become less empathetic, and feel that they have less control over the situation. The Department of Health (1999) recognised the importance of caring for carers and the National Strategy aimed to support people who chose to be carers, and the National Service Framework (NSF) for mental health reported levels of services to involve service users and their carers in planning and delivery of care. By considering this patient in his own terms during the care planning process, he came to terms with his psychotic experience by promising to accept his medications and keeping to appointments with the professionals, began to understand it and acknowledge ways of coping with it. This is in line with evidence based practice which sees the patient as central to all care packages with individualise care plans and multidisciplinary teamwork at the heart of care delivery (DoH, 1999 and NICE, 2002). The National Institute of Clinical Excellent (NICE, 2002) further emphasise the need for family intervention to be available to the families of patients diagnosed as being schizophre nic. Norman and Ryrie (2005) recognise families as a valuable resource for individuals that have symptoms; however if the family reacts to symptoms by being critical or by doing too much for the patient, this can equally have a negative effect on the individual. Education regarding his illness and medication was given to both John and his carer. This was undertaken in his home in an interactive, question and answer format and took several days to complete. Updates and recaps of information were given at regular intervals and they were encouraged to introduce difficulties, questions and queries as they arose. It was an interactive session as it enabled John to give consent for treatment and he contributed his own version. Educating the families / carers of a schizophrenic patient is aimed to lower the expectation of patients and may reduce the presenting symptoms. Leff (1994) and McDonagh (2005) note that one of the main contributions of stress in psychological disorder is expressed emotion from families. Having a mental illness may place limitations on patients lives; in any case, it is the negative attitudes of the other people that may help disable people with mental illness and not the mental illness itself (Seggie, 2007). The expressed emotion from formal carers such as the support workers and nurses can equally have an effect on patient as high and low expressed emotion can be present in the relationship between the nursing staff and patients resulting in possible negative effects on patients outcome (Tattan and Tainer, 2000). Expressed emotion is the critical, hostile and emotionally over involved attitude that carers have towards patients. The carer may influence the outcome of the diagnosis t hrough negative comments and nonverbal actions. This negative attitude from carers does not always help the patient to improve the state of his health. Carers with high expressed emotion are said to cause stress in psychological disorders such as schizophrenia. The stress from negative criticism and pity becomes a burden on the person with a disorder, and may relapse. Expressed emotion may be a direct factor in the relapse of a patient with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (Leff and Vaughn, 1985). Patients are more likely to relapse when there is high expressed emotion present in their living environment as was noted with John (Lopez et al. 1985). When the patient can no longer live with this kind of stress from pity, s/he may fall back into his/her illness using drugs as a way of coping. The stress from the remarks, attitudes and behaviour of the carer maybe over-whelming, because she may feel that she is the cause of the problems. The patient may fall into bad habits and forms a circle of relapse and rehabilitation. One way to escape this circle of behaviour is for the carer to be involved in behaviour family therapy together with the patient it aims to improve the health of the family with less stress and aggravation. The carer is able to learn to accept that John has an illness and may need her help to improve and remain stable hence family therapy. Educating the carer and patient about mental illness is one way that expressed emotion can become lower and no longer be an issue (McDonagh, 2005). When considering family interventions in the care of John, it was important that this includes many others relevant in his life (Berke et al., 2002). A multidisciplinary meeting of all those involved in Johns care was called, aimed at educating them that crisis can be a turning point and the start of something new. Information about the devastating cause of mental illness can take, and exacerbations of symptoms and remissions to patients and carers were given to them. All aimed at stabilising the familys environment by increasing knowledge, coping skills, and the level of support for the carer and John. Most of the therapeutic interventions offered to Johns carer involved communication training, problem solving skills, and education. The style of therapy emphasises the positive aspects of the familys coping style and avoids judgemental or blaming remarks. The aim is for collaboration between the carer and the nursing team over goals for change and a greater emphasis on the needs of John. However, Fadden (1998) criticised the narrow focus on relapse prevention at the expense of addressing the carer is widen needs. There have also been strong criticisms noted about family intervention based on beliefs that it blames families for schizophrenia, thus some family therapists have moved away from a position of trying to reduce expressed emotion by offering a message that stress exacerbates psychosis rather than causes it (Harris et al, 2002). There is contradiction that teaching family that reducing criticism lessens the chance of relapse, yet educating families that schizophrenia is an illness not caused by the family. Family intervention has been noted to improve a number of aspects of this patients social well being such as taking part in activities. John believes that voices from people who were walking closely were planning an imminent attack against him. By getting angry and shouting back at them, he believes that he had prevented a potential attack. In this case, dis traction was unlikely to be successful unless this belief is challenged in a calm and friendly way. John and the author agreed to put this belief to a test and he was later convinced that this was part of his illness. John was told to remove his mind from that thinking and belief that people were talking about him. One of Johns main obstacles in life is lack of motivation; he quiet understands that his mood would lift if he spent more time doing activities to occupy his mind. However, he finds it difficult to motivate himself into taking any form of activity but he had accepted going to his carer (mother) most weekends and to pay regular visit to the communal centre. These will enable him to think less about his delusions. According to Hogston and Simpson (2002) reflection is a process of reviewing an experience of practice in order to better describe, analyse and evaluate, and so inform learning about practice. Wolverson (2000) includes that this is an important process for all nurses wishing to improve their practice. This will be investigated using the Gibbs (1988) model of reflection. On reflection on the care and interventions that John received, a person centred approach appears to be fore-most. He was at the centre of his care, his personal feelings, beliefs and values were appreciated and he was able to exercise informed choices throughout (Callaghan and Waldock, 2006). Engaging John in discussion about his illness and care, and how it is best dealt with was highly appreciated by him; and this was highly regarded by him and his carer, and it leads to improved ability to cope, improved compliance and better outcomes (Kemp et al., 1996). Relaxation techniques were taught to John as a coping strategy for his anxiety; however, although relaxation can be effective, Frisch and Frisch (1998) recognise that relaxation alone is not beneficial therefore it should be used as complimentary intervention with other therapy. Kirby et. al. (2004) acknowledge that mixed skills of staff is important, this works in conjunction with the Essence of Care Document (Department of Health, 2006) which states that training programmes and materials should be accessible and used for patients. John was supported by staff with a combination of experience and knowledge with training on Family interventions and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). CBT is a short term, problem solving based psychological treatment aimed at finding solutions to problems in every day life (Forsythe, 2008). Standard two of the National Service Framework for Mental Health (1999) specifies that clients should have their mental health needs assessed and be offered effective treatment if they require it. It is hoped that John will benefit from CBT in the future along with continuation of family intervention. Throughout the care of my chosen patient, the relationship between the author, the patient and the carer was crucial and recognised as an aspect of service effectiveness (DoH, 2001a) and that active collaboration with the family is a requirement rather than an optional extra whilst delivering care to people with enduring mental health problems. John and carer were happy with the sort of help, support and service the author gave to them when they really needed it most. Reference Barker, P. 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