Challenges Facing The Decision-Making Processes Among Leaders In Research Paper - 3

Challenges Facing The Decision-Making Processes Among Leaders In Learning Institutions - Research Paper Example The researcher states that leaders of educational institutions are therefore compelled to adopt and sustain their managerial and decision-making processes to be able to give guidance to their subordinates as well as to their student body in order to promote a successful school culture. In addition, the making of decisions in diverse learning institutions has to take place through delegation of roles to various groups of individuals in the teaching faculty and/or student body known as ‘task teams/groups’. Some of the leadership roles may be external such as exhibited by a ‘Board of Governors’. Internal task teams are such as the ‘student committees’. The challenges and problems existing in the use of committee models and task groups in decision making are what informs my research topic ‘Challenges Facing The Decision-Making Processes Among Leaders In Learning Institutions’. I will consider some of the challenges that one is likely to meet when dealing with groups, especially in learning institutions. My purpose in my research proposal will be to come up with modalities of management essential in leadership and to further make a design that will assist in the running of task groups in view of enabling effective delivery of all the processes of delegation especially in areas where routine and decision making tools are always required. I chose this research topic because it will assist my leadership project in achieving my career goals and also in view that not all of us can be leaders, not at the same time anyway.

Consumers are Passive Victims Manipulated Into Buying Commodities They Essay

Consumers are Passive Victims Manipulated Into Buying Commodities They Cannot Resist - Essay Example This essay discusses and investigates the topic on why the purchasing habits of the consumers are heavily dependent on certain market parameters. Consumer power in the current marketing system is always a controversial one. Majority of the consumers all over the world are passive elements rather than active elements as far market is concerned. In fashion industry, the passive nature of the consumers is more evident. This essay refers to several examples such as: people normally take inspirations from celebrities while they take purchasing decisions in fashion industry. Products endorsed by the celebrities are moving rapidly towards the market than the products which do not have any such backing. In other words, the researcher states that people are blindly trusting the words of the celebrities and product manufacturers and they are not bothering much to research more about the authenticity of the offers put forward by the advertisers and marketers. However, no two individuals are ali ke: either physically or mentally and therefore it is not necessary that a product suited to one person may be suited to another person. To conclude the research, the author suggests his opinion on the topic that modern customers are not ready to accept such claims and they try to boost their image with the help of expensive products that were successfully advertised by celebreties. Long story short, majority of the current consumers are passive in nature while they take their purchasing decisions.

Drinking age Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Drinking age - Essay Example It is stated in the act, along with other enforcements that the states should legislate or enforce the minimum legal drinking age to be twenty one years old. It is also stated under the Federal Aid Highway Act, that the state that fails to mandate or enforce the twenty one years old law of drinking age, is at risk of losing ten percent of the federal funding for highway appointments. There have been several controversies related to the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. The law was effective in 1984, when President Reagan signed this law for implementation, many people are convinced that the most influential supporter for the act was Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) (Stefan, K, pp.25). Even if it is true or not, there is one thing very apparent that was the act was imposed as a law due to extraordinary support from the groups of special interests among which MADD was one of them. From a very long time, drinking has been considered as a government lack of control issue. Du ring the year 1919, a prohibition was effective which imposed a ban on everyone from drinking alcohol regardless of age group. It was considered as a criminal offense to manufacture, possess, sell or drink alcoholic beverages. The prohibition was lifted by the year 1933, and once again the consumption and possession alcoholic drink was legal. It was official prompted to many states, cities and municipalities that they control drinking by creating legislation. Through several studies, it is suggested that the brain of a youngster is not completely developed until the age of twenty one that is the reason why the brain of youngster is affected differently as compared to the effects on an adult. After several discussions it was settled that the age of twenty one was ideal for legal drinking age and an act was passed, it was required by the states to increase the age of legal drinking to twenty one otherwise their percentage of funding for highways will be reduced by ten percent. The tim e duration provided for implementation was two years. Some of the states enforced the law, some states did not but at present all the states have implemented the law. There are additional exceptions available in the Federal law, if youngsters want to pursue employment in a place where there is dealing of alcoholic beverages. An eighteen year old is eligible to work in a restaurant, bar and serve alcohol at a liquor store, the possession of alcohol in such case is legal, but they are not allowed to consume it. In some states the prohibition are more specifically defined as compared to others, whereas some municipalities have no legislation defined in this regard related to the legal age of drinking. To date there has been a lot of confusion raised with regards to what is allowed and what is not, as the implementation varied from state to state, but it is better to be precautious by being safe and not consuming or possessing alcohol beverages under the age of twenty one. United States of America has implemented highest age of legal drinking as compared to all other countries. Russia, Spain, Ireland, Mexico, Australia and England all these countries have the legal drinking age eighteen. Portugal, Greece, Germany, Italy and few other countries have allowed the young citizen to consume beer at a young age of sixteen, whereas some of the countries have no defined

Consumers are Passive Victims Manipulated Into Buying Commodities They Essay

Consumers are Passive Victims Manipulated Into Buying Commodities They Cannot Resist - Essay Example This essay discusses and investigates the topic on why the purchasing habits of the consumers are heavily dependent on certain market parameters. Consumer power in the current marketing system is always a controversial one. Majority of the consumers all over the world are passive elements rather than active elements as far market is concerned. In fashion industry, the passive nature of the consumers is more evident. This essay refers to several examples such as: people normally take inspirations from celebrities while they take purchasing decisions in fashion industry. Products endorsed by the celebrities are moving rapidly towards the market than the products which do not have any such backing. In other words, the researcher states that people are blindly trusting the words of the celebrities and product manufacturers and they are not bothering much to research more about the authenticity of the offers put forward by the advertisers and marketers. However, no two individuals are ali ke: either physically or mentally and therefore it is not necessary that a product suited to one person may be suited to another person. To conclude the research, the author suggests his opinion on the topic that modern customers are not ready to accept such claims and they try to boost their image with the help of expensive products that were successfully advertised by celebreties. Long story short, majority of the current consumers are passive in nature while they take their purchasing decisions.

Dystopian Elements and Basic Characteristics Essay Example for Free

Dystopian Elements and Basic Characteristics Essay A dystopia is an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives. Dystopian literature shows us a nightmarish image of what might happen to the world in the future. Usually, the main themes of dystopian works are rebellion, oppression, revolutions, wars, overpopulation, and disasters. George Orwell depicts a dystopian world its citizens are constantly brainwashed and live in constant fear. In 1984, propaganda and lies are used to brainwash the citizens and control them. There are many elements of criticisms in this book, but I will be focusing on the Marxist, feminist, and psychoanalytic criticisms. Marxism was developed by Karl Marx in 1848 during the Red Revolution. Marxism is about having social and economic power. In 1984, there are three social classes. The Inner Party, The Outer Party, and the Proles. The Inner Party is the upper class, they have a lot more freedom than the Outer Party and the Proles. They make up 2% of the population and are the elite class. They get better things such as food, coffee, and cigarettes. The Outer Party is the middle class; they live in bad neighborhoods, and barely get any food. They make up 13% of the population. They are constantly watched by telescreens and can’t turn theirs off like the Inner Party can. The Proles are the lower class they do all the manual labor work they aren’t as watched by the Party as the Outer Party because the government doesn’t see them as a threat and they make up 85% of the population. However, everyone in Oceania lives in fear because The Party terrorizes them. The Party has three principles that they follow and everyone in Oceania have been brainwashed into believing: WAR IS PEACE, IGNORANCE IS SLAVERY, and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. This is a form of ideology. In Marxism, ideology is a belief system and belief systems are products of cultural conditioning. In this case, The Party conditioned the people of Oceania into thinking that those three principles are true. The people of Oceania have been programmed into believing those Principles and believing in whatever Big Brother tells them to believe. They are not allowed to think for themselves or have their own opinions, and if they do they will end up getting killed. Oceania is a capitalist, totalitarian society because depending on what party you are in, that’s how you get treated. This is an example of classism. Classism is an ideology where youre prejudiced or in favor of someone depending on what social cl ass you are in. If you are a prole, you’re not looked at in the same way as a person in the Inner Party would be looked at. You would be deemed untrustworthy and you wouldn’t be able to have items like Inner Party people would. One of the core principles of Marxism is, society shapes our consciousness and that’s true. Society tells us what’s hot in fashion, what’s beautiful and what’s not and that shapes how people view themselves and others. In 1984, the government shapes the people’s consciousness by coming up with new words. Words such as, â€Å"doublethink†, â€Å"newspeak†, â€Å"stop crime†, etc. The Thought Police, Youth League, and Big Brother are some of the ways used to keep the people of Oceania in constant fear and keep them in line. Because of this, the people of Oceania suffer from â€Å"groupthink† which is a psychological condition that’s fueled by the Inner Party’s social and economic conditions. â€Å"Groupthink† shapes the lower classes beliefs that the Inner Party is always right. Big Brother is used as a tactic to put fear and paranoia in the people of Oceania’s heads that Big Brother is always watching them. That’s how the government control the people and shape their consciousness. The government does this, so the people will never want to speak out and voice their opinion on Big Brother, because if they do they’ll be considered a criminal, and they will always have complete control and dominance over the people of Oceania. Feminist criticism is a literary form of criticism that gives the perspective of writing from a feminist perspective. It’s a political form of literature that analyzes the questions of how male and females relate to each other and the world and how women are portrayed in literature. History shows that men consider women as â€Å"inferior† and because of that, the stereotype that women are weaker than men was created. Society taught itself that masculinity is related to the weakness of females. (Csaszar, 40). In 1984, Orwell reversed this way of thinking. He made the main character a weak man whose main purpose in life was to obey Big Brother. Orwell also uses compelling, stereotypical, female characters which drives the man to act. Even though the women in the book have a lack of power, they’re the only characters that have a strong influence over Winston which makes the female characters an important part of this book. In the begin and end of 1984, fear controls the main character. Winston is shown as weak and passive-aggressive. He goes to work and rewrites history and he obeys Big Brother. His only purpose is to serve society until he denies conformity later in the book. Winston would’ve continued to obey the government without question as well as lack masculinity if it weren’t for the women in his life. Winston’s mom, ex-wife, and Julia each played a role in Winston’s search for freedom. Winston feels guilty for what happened to his mother, and this is where we first see how women influence Winston (Whitney). Him wishing he could’ve helped his mom causes him to have rebellious thoughts. His ex-wife, Katherine, believed everything that The Party said, and this influenced Winston’s choices he makes throughout the book. Julia is the one character that influenced Winston the most. Julia’s influence on him made him rebel against Big Brother. She also m ade him realize how unhappy he was under Big Brother’s watch and that is the reason he starts to rebel. These women are also described in different ways to show how different their personalities are and show the influence they had on Winston. His mom was the first person to have an impact on Winston. She couldn’t stand up for herself and this showcases the â€Å"women are weak† stereotype and she died because of it. Winston feels guilty and believes he’s responsible for her death and he lets this guilt take over his thoughts. His ex-wife, Katherine, conforms to the servant stereotype. She was a beautiful woman, however, Winston hated her because of her obedience. She was considered the model citizen of The Party. Her talk of their â€Å"duty to the party† encouraged Winston’s rebellious thoughts and his thought crimes increased. All of these women had a huge impact on Winston, but the woman who influenced Winston the most was Julia. She is the ultimate influence that led to Winston’s fall. Julia is the opposite of Winston. She’s fearless, rebellious, and free-spirited, traits Winston wished he had and eventually he gains the courage he lacks. Julia becomes the stereotypical temptress who turns Winston into this brave new person. Whenever he’s around Julia, he’s able to share his hatred for the party and he thinks for himself. Orwell ends the book with, â€Å"He loved Big Brother† (Orwell, 370). By doing that, Orwell shows defeat that ultimately destroyed Winston. When Winston is with Julia, he had a sense of freedom and he was brave, but without her, he goes back to being an obedient citizen because, in the end, Winston doesn’t have anybody else but Big Brother. Orwell’s portrayal of women who fit into these stereotypical roles causes Winston to find himself. His purpose of serving society and obeying Big Brother was greatly influenced by the women in his life. Society destroyed him while women helped shape him into the man he is. Through the guilt he felt when he mom died, Katherine’s lack of emotion, and Julia’s love for rebellion, Winston learned the nature of masculinity for himself. In psychoanalytic criticism, we look at a book from a psychological perspective. Sigmund Freud created the principles of psychoanalysis in 1896. He believes that people are motivated by powerful, unconscious drives and conflicts. When reading through a psychoanalytic lens, the citizens of Oceania are the victims psychological manipulation. The party believes that as long as a person’s perception of the truth can be externally verified, then even a lie can become the truth. For example, one of The Party’s methods of control is Newspeak. The party invented Newspeak to control the way people think. If anyone should think for themselves, then that person has committed thoughtcrime. Thoughtcrime is a thought that doesn’t fit into Big Brother’s ideologies. This controls the people directly through the citizen’s actual thoughts and it also dictates them physically through how Big Brother determines if a citizen is committing a thought crime. Big Brother determines a thought crime by using telescreens that are placed throughout Oceania and they examine the reactions on the face of the people and what they say to find out how they feel about what Big Brother is doing. This controls the people because it makes them not display any opposition to the government. By doing this, fear is instilled in the people and this takes a psychological toll on them. Citizens are constantly reminded that Big Brother is watching them, and that also takes a toll on the people psychologically because they live in fear and paranoia. Another example of Big Brother controlling the people was by the way that he had children brought up. The government brought the children into the organization called the â€Å"Junior Spies†. Once the children were in this organization, they were trained and taught to betray their parents by being additional eyes and ears for Big Brother. This form of control psychologically manipulates families not to talk a bout anything that would display individuality. Big Brother controls the citizens by taking away the passion and the enjoyment out of sex as well. In Oceania, Big Brother establishes sex as something that should only be used for the reproduction to help populate Oceania. Sex isn’t supposed to be enjoyed and can only be done by specified members of the dinner party. Sex expresses individualism and free thought, so by manipulating the people do not like sex, they’re taking away the citizens individualism. Big Brother takes the problems in the society and uses them to say that other parties and cultures are the reasons for their faults. This creates hatred in the people and stirs up emotional responses against the other parties and cultures. The government does this in a way that’s similar to the propaganda tactics used by Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany and Joseph Stalin in Communist Russia. The most obvious way Big Brother psychologically manipulates the citizens is observed through the posters that the government hangs up. Throughout Oceania, there are posters that say, â€Å"Big Brother Is Watching You† This is a scare tactic that the government uses to put fear in the citizens of Oceania. Big Brother uses fear by creating a place in which the citizens are constantly reminded that they are being watched for disloyalty and other crimes. By using psychological manipulation, the citizens of Oceania are trapped in a place where they can’t think for themselves nor can they question the government, because if they do, they will die.

The Role Of Teacher in Written Feedback

The Role Of Teacher in Written Feedback Teacher written feedback plays an essential role in a students writing process. It helps students identify their own strengths and weaknesses, which, in case of the latter, will make students know how to go about improving themselves and become effective writers (Penaflorida, 2002, p. 364). According to Ferris (2002), teacher feedback, if addressed effectively, can also contribute to students overall second language acquisition. Important as teacher written feedback is, there have been several studies comprehensively dealing with the issue. Even with those that do, there exists a lack of consensus over such matters as what aspects teacher feedback should focus on, which forms of feedback are preferable to students, etc. In the context of teaching writing in Vietnam, few studies have been conducted on feedback in general and teacher written feedback in particular. The same situation could be seen at the College of Social Sciences and Humanities-Vietnam National University, Hanoi. In reality, neither an investigation into the current feedback giving practice nor students preferences for teacher written feedback has been carried out at the college. It is, therefore, an open question whether or not current teacher written feedback is beneficial to students at the college. All the aforementioned reasons urge the author to carry out the research entitled A study on teacher written feedback on 1st-year students writings at the College of Social Sciences and Humanities-Vietnam National University, Hanoi. This study is an attempt to examine the real situation of teacher written feedback at the CSSH and to propose some suggestions for the betterment of the current practice. The yielded results is hoped to serve as a useful source of reference for those who concern about the subject matter. I.2. Aims of the study This study is carried out with the aims to: investigate the current practice of teacher written feedback on 1st year students writings at the CSSH-VNU propose some recommendations for the betterment of teacher written feedback at the CSSH. I.3. Research questions In order to achieve the abovementioned aims, the study will be conducted to answer two research questions: In what ways is teacher written feedback given to the 1st-year-students writings at the CSSH VNU? What do 1st-year students at CSSH expect from teacher written feedback to make it more effective? I.4. Scope of the study The research will work on the current situation of teacher written feedback on the 1st-year student writings at CSSH-VNU. The subjects selected for this study are the 1st-year students who are studying English at college. Moreover, the research examines only teacher written feedback but not other types of feedback such as teacher-student conference or teacher taped comments, since teacher written feedback is the main type of feedback at the college. Chapter II: Literature Review This chapter, which reviews the overall background concerning teacher written feedback, will serve as the foundations based on which the study is carried out. II.1. Concept of teacher feedback in writing Concerning the matter of teacher feedback (or respond/commentary), there exist a vast number of definitions given by researchers. Keh (1990) considers feedback as any input from a reader to a writer with the effect of providing information to the writer for revision (p. 294). In other words, it is the comments, questions, and suggestions a reader gives a writer with the view to enhancing his/her writing. The concept of feedback given by Joe (2006) is probably one of the most comprehensive one: Feedback is an inseparable and recursive component of both the teachers instruction and the writing process. It represents a sense of audience and purpose in forming the on-going writing process, while establishing a concept of collaborative reader-editor relationship between teacher and student. The feedback from the reader-editor appears as input for further reexamination and revision of the prior written work by providing optimum opportunities to develop and refine ideas, and may take various forms such as conference and interview. (p. 53) This concept is considered the most thorough one that covers almost aspects of teacher feedback, namely, the positions of feedback in writing instruction and writing process, the relation of student-teacher in process writing, the forms of feedback, and the role of feedback in a writing process. Its thought will, therefore, be used thorough this study. II. 2. Role of teacher written feedback As mentioned above, teacher feedback plays an essential role in a writing process. The importance of teacher feedback can be aptly summed by Straub (1996) It is how we receive and respond to student writing that speaks loudest in our teaching (p.246). In the absence of a face to face verbal writing conference, written response is the only way in which teacher can respond to the individual needs of students. It is via the comments on their writing that students can identify their own strengths and weaknesses, which, in the case of the latter, will make the students know how to go about improving themselves and become effective writers (Penaflorida, 2002, p. 346). Therefore, feedback is considered, first of all, a pedagogical tool that helps enhance students writing competence. Moreover, according to Ressor, teacher feedback is believed to provide students with not only the incentive to improve but also the guidance about how to improve (as cited in Vengadasamy, 2002). Feedback, in this sense, adopts another function; that is, stimulating and motivating student to write. II.3. Features of good teacher written feedback What constitutes good teacher written feedback is a complicated issue. There is little consensus among researchers over the matter as in reality, different individuals may prefer different types of feedback. While some people enjoy negative and direct feedback, other may feel discouraged by the same feedback. Therefore, it is normal to see different sets of criteria for good teacher written feedback. According to Coffin et al. (2003, p. 101), three vital elements of a good feedback are positive comment, criticism and suggestion for improvements. The coexistence of positive comment and criticism, according to Ferris Hedgcock (1998), will bring about the best effects (p. 128). While positive comments can motivate writers, negative ones can constructively show them where they have gone wrong and what action they should take in order to improve their paper. A suggestion is also needed as a guideline for students to make revision. Notably, the aforementioned set of criteria only mentions the elements constituting good teacher feedback. Researchers on teacher feedback also list a large number of other criteria, among which is the one given by Leki (1992). According to this researcher, feedback is only good when teachers concentrate on the content along with a limited amount of feedback on grammar, punctuation, and spelling. According to Baechle Lian (1990) and Mastropiery Scruggs (1994) (as cited in Konold Miller, 2004), high-quality feedback should be timely, accurate, constructive, outcome-focused, encouraging and positive. What is more, good feedback must necessarily avoid unknown abbreviations, codes, ambiguous and unobtainable suggestions for improvement. This set of criteria, in comparison with the two sets mentioned above, is more sufficient since it covers nearly all aspects of good feedback, that is, the elements of good teacher written feedback, the tone of teacher feedback (encouraging and positive) as well as the practicality of the feedback (obtainable suggestions). The existence of different ways to define the criteria of good teacher written feedback indicates that there is no standard type of teacher feedback. It is, therefore, necessary that each teaching and learning environment carry out research to find out the types of feedback that suit their students most. II.4. Major issues of teacher feedback on student writing Providing effective feedback to students has been a matter of concern among writing teachers as well as researchers. A great number of questions have been asked: What should teacher comment on?, To which extent should feedback be?, Which types of comment are most effective? and so on. However, it is the fact that researchers have not reached a consensus over the answers to such questions. Within a small scale study, an overview of the literature of the two main issues, namely content and types of teacher written feedback will be discussed in the following part. II.4.1. Content of teacher written feedback Teachers have been faced with a constant question of what to focus on when giving feedback to student writing. Fathman and Whalley (1990, p.178) notes: much of the conflict over teacher response to written work has been whether teacher feedback should focus on form or content of the writing. Content, in their opinion, refers to comments on organization, ideas and amount of detail, while form involves comments on grammar and mechanical errors. Traditionally, teachers were inclined to identifying and correcting all the surface-level errors; i.e., errors on form (Sommers, 1982). Kepner (1991) explains that teacher corrects errors out of the fear that the erroneous structures would become fossilized in the students. However, the mere focus on form correction would have detrimental impact on student writing. That students receive a corrected draft from a teacher with red-ink correction all over the page would only add to their anxiety when dealing with another writing task. Moreover, a large amount of error correction may draw the students attention to form only but not to the important matter of developing the content (Sommers, 1982). This is because when teacher feedback focuses on form (grammar, spelling, etc.), many students will revise their writing by correcting the surface mistakes and will make few or no other changes. The result is that the students rewriting becomes grammar exercises rather than challenges to clarify meaning. In some other research, there seems an agreement that attention must paid to both content and form for the fact grammatical inaccuracies can have negative effect on the overall quality of the student writing (Raimes, 1992, p. 308). In short, what to feedback on remains a complex issue. Though many studies have been carried out on the issue, a consensus over the matter has not been reached. This indicates that further studies are needed in order to find out the answer to the problem. II.4.2. Types of teacher written feedback This part will present some major types of feedback: positive feedback negative feedback, direct feedback indirect feedback, marginal feedback end feedback. These types of feedback are discussed and compared in pair in a way that the differences between them, i.e., the advantages and disadvantages of one type over the other, are highlighted. II.4.2.1. Positive feedback versus a negative feedback In their studies, Fathman Whalley (1990) suggests that positive comments give students motivation to improve their writings. When students are told they are doing right, they feel motivated to write more and to write better. However, only positive comment is not sufficient enough to motivate students to improve their writing. According to Hyland and Hyland (2001), negative comments are more useful for many students who want their problems to be highlighted. Too much negative feedback, however, may adversely affect students writing. As they re-read the writing with red marks all over the page, students may feel discouraged and stop trying to correct the mistakes. All things considered, it is advisable that teachers get a balance between praise and criticism, since the combination of both kinds will bring about the best effects (Ferris Hedgcock, 1998, p. 128). II.4.2.2. Direct versus indirect feedback Direct feedback is teachers explicit written corrections in response to students errors. With direct feedback, students are expected merely to transcribe the teachers suggested corrections into their texts. Indirect feedback, on the other hand, is when the teacher alerts students to error using general comments, but gives students the opportunity to fix errors themselves (Ferris, 2002). In his study, Ferris (2002) shows that indirect feedback is more helpful to student writers in most cases because it leads to greater cognitive engagement, reflection, and guided learning and problem-solving. Since teachers only point out the mistakes (or suggest the way to correct them), students have to figure out the way to correct the mistakes on their own. This, in the long run, helps promote students thinking as well as the ability to self-edit their own writings. Moreover, when having to correct the mistakes by themselves, students normally remember the mistakes better; therefore, they are more likely to be able to avoid them in the future. Beneficial as indirect feedback to students, for mistakes that are too complicated, direct feedback proves better than indirect one because it saves students from discouragement when they could not solve the problems on their own. All things considered, it would be the best way that teachers combine both direct and indirect feedback when they respond to student writings. II.4.2.3. Marginal versus end feedback Marginal feedback is a kind of feedback that is written in the margin or between sentence lines of the students paper. By contrast, end feedback refers to the summary feedback at the end of the paper. According to Ferris and Hedgecock (1998), there is no conclusive evidence that either marginal or end comments are preferable or more effective. In reality, each type of feedback is used with a certain aim. While marginal comments are more suitable to respond to specific sections of the text, end comments are usually saved for more global concerns affecting the entire composition. To sum up, as the above literature indicates, there is no consensus over what constitutes effective feedback. As a result, in order for teachers to make full use of feedback, they need to adjust the types of comments to the certain kinds of students. Chapter III: Methodology This chapter, which introduces the methodology of the study, covers the research approach, the methods of data collection, and the methods of data analysis. III.1. Research approach A combination of both quantitative and qualitative method was utilized in this study so as to achieve the desired aim. Quantitative method realized by means of a questionnaire to students, proved to be appropriate because it was adequate to find objective answers to such questions as How is feedback given to the 1st-year student writings and What do students expect from their teacher written feedback?. Moreover, thanks to the large number of participants in the study, that is, 80 1st-year students, the information acquired is reliable and generalisable (Nunan, 1989, p.4). In this study, qualitative was also needed since one end of the research was to find out how teachers respond to their student writings and why they respond in such ways. Qualitative study is based mainly on three basic data gathering techniques, that is, participant observation, interview and document or artifact analysis. III.2. Methods of data collection III.2.1. Questionnaire The first method aims at collecting statistical data from students to answers two research questions: (1) In what ways is teacher written feedback given to the 1st-year-students writings at the CSSH VNU? and (2) What do 1st-year students at CSSH expect from teachers written feedback to make it more effective? The data gained not only provided the researcher with an overall understanding about the students opinion about current situation of teacher written feedback given but also some pedagogical implications for the practice of giving feedback at CSSH. The questionnaire included two main parts, namely, the current situation of teacher written feedback and students expectations of teacher written feedback. The subjects selected for the study include 80 freshmen who are in the second semester of the academic year 2009-2010 at CSSH-VNU. The questionnaires were distributed to respondents with the researchers presence so that clarification and disambiguation could be made timely. (A copy of the questionnaire can be seen in the Appendix A). The steps of conducting and distributing questionnaire can be illustrated as follows: Studied available documents and chose the most appropriate data Designed questionnaire Piloted questionnaires Revised questionnaires in terms of language as well as instructions so as to make it clear and reader-friendly Distributed questionnaires to 1st-year students at CSSH Gathered findings from respondents, analyzed and interpreted the data. III.2.2. Student writing analysis Analyzing student writings already responded by teachers served two main functions. First, it gave the researcher an in-depth look at how teacher written feedback is given to the 1st-year student writings. In addition, it provided materials for the interviews with the teachers. Three groups of students were randomly selected. From the four groups, 15 newly-commented writing papers were borrowed and analyzed. The steps of analyzing students writings can be illustrated as follows: Borrowed the writing papers from students Read students writing papers with the teachers written feedback Analyzed the teachers comments in terms of feedback content and types. By this way, the distinctive features of a certain teachers style of giving written feedback could be discovered. III.2.3. Semi-structure interviews In this study, semi-structure interviews with the teachers were used with the views to double-checking the information gained in the questionnaire. The situation of teacher written feedback was, therefore, looked into from two different angles, both from teachers and students perspectives. Three teachers working at CSSH were invited to take part in the interviews. This number was reasonable because if it was greater, the qualitative data would be too enormous to manage. The interviews were carried out informally in the teachers native language so as to elicit the most information from the teachers involved. During the interview, audio recorder was utilized. All the data were then transcribed and translated into English for data analysis. (The content of interview questions and Transcription of the interviews can be seen in Appendix B) In short, the combination of qualitative and quantitative method was utilized so as to yield the most information needed. At the same time, the shortcomings that persisted in individual method would be overcome. III.3. Method of data analysis Since collected in both quantitative and qualitative method in this research, the data, therefore, needed to be processed in different ways so as to yield the most accurate results. As for the quantitative approach, the researcher followed the statistical procedure from coding questionnaire data to summarizing and reporting data in a reader-friendly way. As for the qualitative approach, the method of data analysis was to transcribe the recorded interviews and synthesize them. The recorded interviews were first transcribed in their original language and then translated into English. Only English would be used in the discussion of findings for convenience. CHAPTER 4: Discussion of results IV.1. Current situation of teacher written feedback from students perspective How teacher written feedback in writing skill is delivered at CSSH is reflected in the first part of the questionnaire to students. IV.1.1. Frequency of teacher written feedback The first question asked students how many times their teacher responded to each of their writing assignment in written form. As can be seen from Figure 1, nearly one forth of the respondents stated that their teachers gave feedback to their writing twice per one assignment. This means after getting teacher written comments, students were required to revise and hand in the next versions for further feedback and evaluation. This level of frequency was believed to be appropriate, since it could encourage students to revise and to enhance their writing performance. The majority of students (77%), however, received teacher written feedback only once per assignment. Since the teachers did not require students to revise and hand in the writing after they received teacher written feedback, it is likely that few students had enough motivation to revise their paper. This, in turn, might reduce the usefulness of teacher written feedback. IV.1.2. General evaluation of teacher written feedback It is clear from Figure 2 that the majority of students (75%) got fairly detailed feedback, that is, comments and suggestions/corrections to major mistakes. This way of giving feedback is supported by many researchers who claim that teachers should focus on some typical problems at a time (Ur, 1996; Sommer, 1982). The number of students stating that their teacher feedback was very general, e.g., feedback with only some words like excellent, good or bad was 8, accounting for 10% of all students. There was no student receiving NO written comments from their teachers at all, which means no teacher felt into the trap of being non-corrector. These numbers indicate that the practice of giving feedback at CSSH was fairly adequate. IV.1.3. Content of teacher written feedback Figure 3 shows different categories of teacher written feedback from the view of students. Strikingly, there were very few students who NEVER received teacher written feedback on these categories (except for that on format). The levels often accounted for the highest numbers of students, from the lowest 25 students to the highest of 45. These figures indicate that teachers at CSSH have paid attention to both form and content, though the levels of attention may vary from one teacher to another. Noticeably, the percentage of students who RARELY received feedback on ideas, organization of ideas and format was higher than that on grammar, vocabulary and mechanics. For the level ALWAYS, the highest number of students chose grammar, that is, 42 over 80 students and next-coming was expression, 31 over 80 students. This is predictable since mistakes of surface level (grammar, vocabulary and mechanics) are more identifiable than those of organization and ideas (Ur, 1996; Fathman Whalley, 1990). However, that teachers rarely gave feedback on content may, in the long run, have negative impacts on the students because writing is, in the final analysis, about communicating and presenting thoughts. In summary, two major features of teacher written feedback interpreted from this bar chart are: (1) teachers did pay attention to both the form and the content of students writings and (2) teachers were more likely to respond to surface-level mistakes. IV.1.4. Types of teacher written feedback Concerning types of teacher written feedback (Figure 4), the majority of teachers at CSSH used both positive feedback (i.e., praise) and negative one (i.e., criticism) when responding to students writings. The overall number of students who always, or often received teachers positive feedback far outnumbered that of negative one, that is, 91% to 59%. This reality was an indication that teachers at CSSH preferred giving feedback in an encouraging tone to negative one. Regarding marginal and end feedback, there still existed 16% of students who rarely received end feedback and the other 20% who rarely received marginal feedback. Though the numbers were not high, it was still an indication that some teachers still did not pay enough attention to these two must-have feedback. As can be seen from Figure 4, both direct and indirect feedback was used and the levels of frequency were nearly the same. It is inferable that teachers paid equal attention to both types. It can be concluded that teachers at CSSH employed a wide variety of types of feedback to respond to students writings. However, in order to have accurate judgment of the effectiveness of the types used, in-depth interviews with the teachers are needed. This will be discussed in later part of this study. IV.1.1.5. Comprehensibility of teacher written feedback The last question in the first part of the questionnaire asked about the comprehensibility of students of teacher written feedback. The majority of respondents, 90%, answered that generally, they did. However, there were still 10% (8 students) stating that they were not able to understand teacher feedback. The most common reasons for this were teachers too general feedback (6 respondents) and new words/structures in their feedback (6 respondents). Correction codes, which are initially aimed at systematizing and simplifying teacher written feedback, turned out to make it incomprehensible to understand to a number of students (4 respondents). IV.2. Current situation of teacher written feedback from teachers perspective Emphatically, this study aims at finding out how written feedback is delivered from different perspectives, both of teachers and students. This part will present information on firstly, the way teachers give feedback to students (via analyzing student writings with teacher feedback on them) and secondly, teachers reasoning for the way they give feedback to students (via interviews with the teachers). However, in order to make it easy to follow, the information will be discussed according to the frame of the interviews with the presentation of student writings analysis integrated in it. The following section will be discussed in two different categories, namely, aspects of teacher written feedback and types of teacher written feedback. 21The following table compares the two major aspects form content that have been responded by teachers. The dark columns present the number of mistakes identified by the researcher and then double-checked by a native speaker, and the other columns the numbers of mistakes pointed out, suggested or corrected by the teachers. The ratios of mistakes pointed out by teachers to those by the native speaker gives the researcher an overall assessment of the frequency level of teacher written feedback at CSSH. As can be seen from the table, all the teachers at CSSH paid attention to both content and form of student writing papers, though the level of attention may differ. In order to make the information easy to follow, it was then re-illustrated in the form of bar-chart as follows: While Teacher 1 (T1) seemingly put more focus on feedback on form, Teacher 2 (T2) and Teacher 3 (T3) paid fairly equal attention to both the content and form of the writings. The reason for their emphasis on both form and content was they are equally important (T3). In greater details, If I dont correct mistakes on form (like grammar, word choice, etc), students will be likely to repeat the mistakes, even the simple ones, in the future and they are used to the teaching and learning method at High school where a lot of emphasis is put on grammar that If I dont orient them towards the content of a writing paper, they will perhaps stop at language accuracy only (T3). Explaining her way of giving feedback, T1 responded that the possibility of students making mistakes on content was quite small since students normally get suggestions on idea organization either from the teacher or from the course-book within prewriting stage (T1). Noticeably, though T1 acknowledged the importance of content, she did not manage to treat it equal to form. Concerning the treatments of mistakes, it was notable while mistakes on form were usually corrected by teachers right away; those on content just received suggestions for revision from teachers. Reasoning this, T2 answered its difficult to correct the content directly on their papers and I dont want them to think thats the only way (when I give correction) to go about that. In the same line with this were feedbacks on content, as I said earlier, are suggestive only, theres no one correct way of organizing ideas (T3). In short, all the teachers participating in this study were well aware of the importance of content over form, which helped them avoid being mistake-hunters. However, how much teachers focus on either form or content vary. IV.2.2. Types of teacher written feedback Type of teacher written feedback was also a field marking the differences between the teachers participating in the study. In terms of marginal and end feedback, it was notable that while T1 preferred using marginal to end feedback, T2 tended to enjoy the other way round. T1 stated that her in-text comments were enough for students to revise their papers. Furthermore, the teacher normally did not feel content with her student writings: if I gave an overall comment to my students, that comment would be very negative and it may make them feel discouraged. T2, in contrast, used more end feedback as she wanted to comment on students overall performance. According to T2, the focus of the 2nd semester was free writing, which meant more personal feelings and less teacher intervention. Adopting both marginal and end feedback when responding to student writings, T3 explained they serve different purposes. Marginal feedbacks were handy and suitable with minor mistakes; while end feedbacks were given for general comments. As a consequence, the lack of either marginal or end feedback led to incomprehensive feedback. Relating to the use of negative and positive feedback, it was notable that except from T1, the other two teachers frequently resorted to both types of feedback when responding to student writings. According to these teachers, feedback should, apart from helping students aware of the mistakes they make, be able to motivate students. This idea agreed with what Coffin et al. (2003) listed as the features of good teacher written feedback, that is, positive comment, criticism and suggestion for improvement. T1, who seemed not in favor of the ideas, stated it very much depends on the quality of the writing to decide what to include in the feedback. According to T1, teachers should not just praise students so that they feel at ease when receiving feedback because that may do more harm than good: students may feel that Oh, the teacher says that my writing is good, so why should I revise it or they may feel hurt when the feedback is positive while the mark is actually low (T1). This idea, whi ch had some merits in itself, should be taken into consideration. The types of feedback used have, to a certain extent, reflected the tone to teacher written feedback. While T2 and T3 preferred giving feedback in a friendly, encouraging tone, T1 turned to more serious feedback which was, according to the teacher, more beneficial to students. In short, the data achieved from the interviews, which do conform to those from student que

How Hitchcock Challenges Audience Expectations in his Film Psycho :: Papers

How Hitchcock Challenges Audience Expectations in his Film Psycho Hitchcock does very well in his film with censorship of film making in the nineteen fifties as he goes right to the limits of were the film is just suitable to show the nation. He does this many times in his film, one example is where Marian gets undressed and dressed. You see her bra and knickers in this scene, which is very unusual back then, it is worse than seeing nudity in films now. If Marian had taken any think else off in this scene it would have been explicit nudity, therefore not be able to be shown in the film. This is what I mean by how Hitchcock takes censorship to the limit. Some other censorship themes that Hitchcock took to the boundary was expressive kissing, swearing and brutality. Hitchcock went as far as possible with censorship to grip the audience and get more of a feel to the film. Psycho is a fifteen in England to buy on video these days because the censorship now is nothing compared to back when the film was made, a director can do basically anything now. The audience now would say it should be a twelve or lower as there is no swearing or sexual scenes and not that much brutality and parents would not mind their children seeing this. The scenes are still scary to the audience though and it would take quite an intelligent twelve year old to wrap their head round what is about and how it develops at the end. The editing in psycho is great and must have taken a week to do just one scene. It is very good for the scene and for the audience as it builds tension and creates an atmosphere. The best scene to show this as an example is the famous shower scene where Marian is murdered, whilst having a shower, by Norman dressed as his mother with a knife. There was seventy-eight separate camera set ups needed for the shower scene from the shower head, down the toilet, from the mirror, Marians How Hitchcock Challenges Audience Expectations in his Film Psycho :: Papers How Hitchcock Challenges Audience Expectations in his Film Psycho Hitchcock does very well in his film with censorship of film making in the nineteen fifties as he goes right to the limits of were the film is just suitable to show the nation. He does this many times in his film, one example is where Marian gets undressed and dressed. You see her bra and knickers in this scene, which is very unusual back then, it is worse than seeing nudity in films now. If Marian had taken any think else off in this scene it would have been explicit nudity, therefore not be able to be shown in the film. This is what I mean by how Hitchcock takes censorship to the limit. Some other censorship themes that Hitchcock took to the boundary was expressive kissing, swearing and brutality. Hitchcock went as far as possible with censorship to grip the audience and get more of a feel to the film. Psycho is a fifteen in England to buy on video these days because the censorship now is nothing compared to back when the film was made, a director can do basically anything now. The audience now would say it should be a twelve or lower as there is no swearing or sexual scenes and not that much brutality and parents would not mind their children seeing this. The scenes are still scary to the audience though and it would take quite an intelligent twelve year old to wrap their head round what is about and how it develops at the end. The editing in psycho is great and must have taken a week to do just one scene. It is very good for the scene and for the audience as it builds tension and creates an atmosphere. The best scene to show this as an example is the famous shower scene where Marian is murdered, whilst having a shower, by Norman dressed as his mother with a knife. There was seventy-eight separate camera set ups needed for the shower scene from the shower head, down the toilet, from the mirror, Marians