Monday, January 27, 2020

Benefits and Strategies of Learning Through Play

Benefits and Strategies of Learning Through Play Play is essential in child’s early years. In my model of play, every area is interrelated in regards to play. Play can happen at any point of time and at any place. From a child’s perspective, play is enjoyable and imaginative. Educators play an important role in planning play activities in the curriculum and to sustain their thinking. Background of the family reflects how children play at home and with their peers. In my model of play, a cultural-historical theory drives my play practices. According to Vygotsky, â€Å"Children will give new meaning to objects in their play in order to progress imaginary play† and to understand reality by learning how people work through role-playing (Fleer, 2013). He also continued that professionals in early childhood will contribute in children’s play through interactions in sustained shared thinking and through play connections with children (Fleer, 2013). Thus; my model of play revolves around these important aspects for a child – culture, play, educator, curriculum, family and educator. Each aspect will be further explaining in the following: Play Cultural –historical view of play can be reflected in my model of play. In this model, children engaged in both structured and unstructured play. In unstructured play, children will develop a state of mind, helping them to deal with feelings or challenges in their life and at the same time, providing opportunities for them to explore different ways in doing things (Bruce, 2011). From a child’s perspective, they use very minimal effort to move between play and real world (Edmiston, 2008). When they play, they create imaginary situations. These imaginary situations are based on their real-world experiences and children give new senses to their movements and objects (Fleer, 2013). I observed how these two girls, Ann (three years old) and May (six years old) playing at the kitchen corner. They are creating imaginary situations. In their play, they take on roles. They pretend to be mother and baby. As they are in their imaginary situations, children began to move away from r eality. They became more detailed in taking their roles. In my observations, Ann began to sound like a baby and will seek attention from her â€Å"mother†. Both children learn about everyday concepts as they observe how their mother takes care of baby. From there, they also picked up scientific concepts about movement like walking, carrying baby dolls and cuddling. Culture The family background of the child sets conditions for play. Usually, children imitate the role of the people they have most contact with. For example, if children will imitate the role of the teacher when they are at home; or in school, they will take on the role of their mother as they had been observing how she manages the kitchen daily. As children develop their play, they adopt the role and create their make-believe stories. In my observations on my play model, Ann and May adopt the roles of mother and baby and they moved on to puppetry play and bake cookies. When children are in play, children move in and out of imaginary situations (Fleer, 2013). They use special languages to communicate to draw a line between real worlds and play experiences. Children also use their language based on their family background. As May and Ann are Malays, they have included their mother tongue in their play conversations. They used, â€Å"ka kak† which means sister in their conversation. T his also explains that culture reflects on how children interact in their play experiences. It frames on how children play occurs based on their everyday experiences. In Vygotsky’s theory, he noted that a child’s daily life experiences sets and frames on how play may occur and children will not play freely (Fleer, 2010). Curriculum In my school, we believe that children learn through play. In our planning, we engage children in purposeful play and as well as free play. Thus, we do not provide worksheets for children to work on. For example, children (aged 3 years old) will be hunting for items associated with letter ‘f’, explore what they can do their feet and traced the letter by walking on the letter. As children are still developing their fine motor skills, teachers should not be stressing if the child is able to write. Instead, teachers can work on their gross motor skills and they learn through kinetic movements. From children’s perspective, they view it as play as they get to walk, jump and most importantly, it is enjoyable and fun. In my school, children also participated in projects. We lead provocation through their play activities. During the interactions, teachers and children are involved sustained shared thinking. Sustained shared thinking is an effective interaction where two or more parties and â€Å"working together† to understand concepts, cracking a problem and extending conversations and activities (Siraj-Blatchford, 2007). In our play incidents during our project, we sustain children’s thinking by asking open-ended questions. Our curriculum is also tied closely to Ministry of Education (MOE) kindergarten framework. In a Kindergarten Learning Forum opening speech by Ms Indranee Rajah, she mentioned that MOE strongly believes that the critical principle of learning in the early years is engaging in learning through purposeful play (MOE, 2012). They believe that children will learn through purposeful play as they are feeling competent about their ability to learn and develop their physical, cognitive, emotional and social skills. In my centre, we believe that children are competent and engage children in both purposeful play and as well as free play. Therefore, my model of play ties in closely with my school’s curriculum which we encourage children to learn through play and as well as referring to MOE’s kindergarten framework to support children in purposeful play activities. Educators As educators, we play critical role in sustaining children in play. We need look into our pedagogical role in engaging children in play. As children change the meaning of objects we have to look into the depth of play experiences to ensure that these play experiences benefit the children. When a purposeful play activity happens, Educators have to thoughtfully plan the activities with appropriate resources and materials for children to explore. Teachers have to constantly reflect on their teaching practices to see whether their planned activities are inviting children’s interest to be engaged and learning (Lim, 2010). Thus, teachers should provide a variety of play activities in child’s learning and a balance of play and work activities. These balance of play and work activities should include unstructured play to structured play such as from child-initiated play to teacher directed play. Educators should also take note of the sensitivity interaction between child and adult in play and playful experiences activities. Some play does not have to be guide by adults but educators should note that they have to be around even though it is free play for children. Even though the school has a strong curriculum, teachers have to be culturally sensitive to understand each and every child who enters to the classroom. Thus, as educators, we should not be stereotyping the children through similar characteristics of the children. Instead, we should take time to listen to the children when they are at play and interactions before we really make any conclusions on the child’s need and making it into his or her individual goals. This also explains that educators are also assessing for play. In Fleer’s (2010) explanation, assessment for play is how educators assess formative assessment and summaries the assessment at the end of a project or event. While observing the children, we also assess the children through play. This helps educators to do their observations and analyse when children are engaged entirely in play activities (Fleer, 2013). Teachers play a critical how in documenting down these play moments. Documentations can be recorded down in photographs, children’s voices or drawing which children is comfortable with and they can be displayed in the classroom. From all these play moments, children can find out what do they want to find out, and apply their knowledge gained from their inquiry. Fahey (as cited in Fleer, 2013) reasons in inquiry learning, that it is important to provide children the chance to ask questions, clarifying points and to be engaged in the topics which they are interested. This is also useful and going in depth of the child’s play so that learning can be furthered in play (Fleer, 2013). Teachers and children can also review their play activities in a form of KWL chart. This helps children to revisit the play activities and find out what they have learnt and how they can apply their knowledge gain in other situations. Environment Another aspect to discuss is the environment conditions and affordances in play. I believe that environment has an impact in play practices. Whether it is at school, community or at home, it provides different opportunities for the child to learn in daily life. At school, based on child’s interest, educators can then work on setting up the relevant resources in the classroom. Hedges (as cited in Lim, 2010) even inspire teachers to work together with children and sharing responsibility in order to have a child-initiated curriculum where teachers and children can co-construct appropriate and meaningful knowledge. In my school setting we believe that the environment is the third teacher. From a child’s perspective, the visual influences interaction and developing thinking and learning (Strong-Wilson Ellis, 2007). As our school is inspired by Reggio Emilia, it advocates that teachers to take note to the numerous ways to use the space to invite interactions (Strong-Wilson Ellis, 2007). To encourage children to participate in their culture community and to engage in meaningful play activities, teachers who are influenced by Reggio Emilia have capitalize on the environment’s potential as a developmental niche where children acquire knowledge skills and understandings (New, 2007). Thus, at my school setting, the classroom has wide windows to allow natural light to shine through the class. The resources used in the classroom are closest to the natural materials such as twigs, leaves, branches. This can form part of children’s play as they use these materials to create new meanings and interact with their peers and teachers. The environment also reflects school’s basis in John Dewey’s educational philosophy and Vygotsky’s social constructivist learning theory (Tar r, 2001). Both theorists â€Å"believe that children can best create meaning and make sense of their world through living in complex, rich environments which support complex, varied, sustained, and changing relationships between people, the world of experience, ideas and the many ways of expressing ideas† (Tarr, 2001, p.7). The outdoor environment also supports in children’s play. In my school, children are encouraged to engage in outdoor play activities. As my school setting are able to afford big spaces for children, we have the space for water play and sand play. This provides children to be exposed to a variety of play activities be it in classroom or outdoors. Family With reference to cultural-historical theory, play is learned in families (Fleer, 2013). Families can engage children in play and they can learn to pick up valued skills. For an example, parents will do house chores and from a child’s perspective, it is a play and fun activity in helping their parents. In this case, play has developed into an activity which children have contributed to the family. I feel that families should not neglect children’s play at home or when they are with them. Involving families in children’s play can motivate the child in learning and exploring new things, and fostering relationship between them. In conclusion, play is leading activity (Fleer, 2013) in a child’s life. By viewing at how each and every aspect contributes to play, as an educator, I have to constantly reflect on my teaching practices on how I can engage children in play. As technology has been moving rapidly, children are more engaged in technology such as iPad, children may forgo about playing physically with peer interactions. Thus, families and educators should be reminded that there should also be a balance between play activities for the child to be engaged and learn. Reference List Bruce, T. (2011). Learning through play: for babies, toddlers and young children (2nd ed.). London: Hodder Education. Edmiston, B. (2008). Chapter 1. Ethics in play. In B. Edmiston. Forming ethical identities in early childhood play, pp. 1 – 24. New York: Routledge. Fleer, M. (2010). Chapter 2. Parallel conceptual worlds. In Early learning and development: cultural-historical concepts in play, pp.20 -32. New York: Cambridge University Press. Fleer, M. (2013). Play in the Early Years. Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Lim, S. M-Y. (2010). Reconsidering the play-work dichotomy in pedagogy. In M. Ebbeck M. Waniganayake (eds.). : Learning in diverse contexts, pp.141 -156. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Ministry of Education. (2012). Kindergarten learning forum. Retrieved June 19, 2014, from http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/speeches/2012/11/20/opening-address-by-ms-indranee-rajah-at-kindergarten-learning-forum-2012.php New, R. S. (2007). Reggio Emilia as cultural activity theory in practice. Theory into Practice, 46(1), 5-13. Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2007). Creativity, communication and collaboration: The identification of pedagogic progression in sustained shared thinking. Asia-Pacific Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education, 1(2), 3-23. Strong-Wilson, T., Ellis, J. (2007). Children and place: Reggio Emilias environment as third teacher. Theory into practice, 46(1), 40-47. Tarr, P. (2001). Aesthetic Codes in Early Childhood Classrooms: What Art Educators Can Learn from Reggio Emilia. Name: Loo Si Hui Student ID: 25687514 Page 1

Sunday, January 19, 2020

15 Minutes :: essays research papers

Like many ambitious, provocative films, "15 Minutes" is a bit of a mess. Both audacious and unwieldy, exciting and excessive, this dark thriller is too long, too violent and not always convincing. But at the same time, there's no denying that it's onto something, that its savage indictment of the nexus involving media, crime and a voracious public is a cinematic statement difficult to ignore. For despite its traditional cops-and-killers format, "15 Minutes" (its title taken from Andy Warhol's prediction of how long everyone in the future can expect to be famous) is a polemical, apocalyptic film. Writer-director John Herzfeld is furious at the "if it bleeds, it leads" nature of our TV news culture, at the intertwined lusts for fame and gore that rule a society where publicity is more important than reality, everyone plays the victim, and everything is for sale. Though its anger is a force to be reckoned with, "15 Minutes" finds some space to be funny, albeit in a bleak way, and even provides unexpected moments of romance. Herzfeld, whose debut film was the equally impudent if less impressive "2 Days in the Valley," has utilized an appropriately off-center sensibility for his story, taking the strands of crime melodrama and twisting them to fit his particular purposes. A key factor in keeping "15 Minutes" involving is its look. Working with inventive French cinematographer Jean Yves Escoffier ("Les Amants du Pont-Neuf," "The Cradle Will Rock," "Nurse Betty") and editor Steven Cohen, Herzfeld is determined to keep things kinetic and visually interesting. He even makes vivid use of footage shot on a video camera by one of the actors while in character. In general outline a policier about two of the good guys chasing a pair of villains, "15 Minutes" utilizes marquee names Robert De Niro and Edward Burns for its investigators, but generates more interest with the two lesser-known actors who get to create all the havoc. Emil Slovak (Karel Roden) and Oleg Razgul (Oleg Taktarov) are exceptionally good as the Eastern European version of those criminal odd couples movies delight in spawning. While Emil is shrewd and ruthless, Oleg is childlike, dreamy and obsessed with being a filmmaker. "I am here for movies," he tells a baffled New York immigration official, adding by way of explanation, "I saw 'It's a Wonderful Life.' " Actually, Emil and Oleg are here to get the money owed them from an earlier criminal action.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Developing and assessing employees Essay

â€Å"Success in a business requires discipline, training and hard work. But if you aren’t frightened by these things, opportunities are just as great today as they were.† David Rockefeller (US banker, 1915-present) As a human resource manager in an Interior Designing Company, Venture Interiors, I will be tackling training and development, and performance management in the company. Before I go any further, let me explain what I mean by training and employee development. Training is the acquisition of a body of knowledge and skills, which can be applied to a particular job. In Venture Interiors, employees have the basic interior designing skills, however due to technological development, employees constantly require new and higher levels of skills. In the past, we used to sit down with a paper and pen to draw up our designs, beginning with sketches to the final piece of work, this was not simple and took days because it required a lot of calculations and erasing and sometimes a simple blunder like a miscalculation, would mean starting all over again, I mean work that has taken you days to complete, you can imagine how tiring and frustrating and time consuming this is. But thanks to Computer Aided Designing Programs such as AutoCAD, designing is much easier, accurate and faster, you as the designer need only to come up with the ideas, and the rest of the work like drawing, editing, calculations, adjustments and even suggestions are done by the computer and this concept extends beyond designing into other areas such as digital advertisements, use of business software, on-line training etc. However the employees need to be trained how to use these programs and these programs also keep updating, for example at the moment AutoCAD 2004 is on the market and if the company wants to upgrade, we will need to train our employees. It is therefore very essential for the efficiency and the competitiveness of our business to update our employees’ skills by drawing out training programs and employee development according to each employee’s potential. Read more:  Employee Training and Development Articles Employee development refers to a course of action designed to enable the individual to realise his or her potential for growth in the organisation; in other words we are not training employees for now, but for the future. For example, recently I promoted some employees in an internal recruitment scheme; these employees had undergone sufficient training for their prospective jobs over the last period of years they had served this company thus making them eligible for the new job positions. In order to develop an effective training program, it is vital for the human resource planner to draw up a need analysis, that is, what aims and objectives the organisation is trying to achieve from these programs, and what specific knowledge, skills and attitudes employees need to acquire in order to achieve these objectives, which skills are hot in the marketplace and identify which training route would be the best to achieve these objectives. For example, if I would like a staff member to develop his painting skills, I am not going to send him off for an IT course, I must choose a suitable training course like airless and conventional spray painting and decorative training. There are various types of training, which are broadly categorised into two; off the job training and on the job training. Off the job training is the kind of training where employees attain external courses. Members of staff are sent off elsewhere to receive training for days or even months. These could be commercial training courses or seminars. In Venture Interiors, we try to limit external courses to the staff members with the most potential because they are usually very expensive. Depending on the course, the overall cost could prove quite expensive for example; many courses may require an overnight stay at a hotel if the course is outside the area or the course itself may prove to be expensive due to the level of expertise or equipment needed to deliver the course. Sending employees to a training programme for one, two or even more days sometimes leads to shortage of labour, especially in the peak seasons causing loss of production within the company. On the other hand, off the job training is beneficial to the company in that external courses are sources of the latest information, current trends, skills and techniques for example current computer software or computerised technologies, decorative and photography skills, innovative administrative procedures etc. These new skills are brought back and utilised within the company. Employees sent to a course feel more valued as they realize that they are receiving quality training thus motivating them. ‘On the job’ training is the kind of training whereby members of staff acquire internal courses at their places of work. Employees are trained by experienced members of staff or external trainers; some companies such as ours, have even gone ahead to hire professional trainers. We decided on hiring professional trainers because we believe teaching or training is a specialisation in itself, so unless the person training has the skills and knowledge to train, this would mean that the training would not be done to a sufficient standard. According to the annual report by the Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI) in England, as much as 60% of on the job training available is inadequate. We interviewed our trainees and one of the profound reasons turned out to be that some employees are distracted by the pressures at work making it difficult for them to focus on their training. However, on the job training has turned out to be cost effective and productive, as the employees are still working as they are learning; the company also does not have to cover costs such as accommodation in hotels. As training progresses, employees begin to feel more confident, this confidence allows them to work at higher standards and be more productive. Induction is an example of on the job training whereby employers try to make new staff feel welcome, ensuring that they understand the work and the vision of the organisation, where and who they will be working with and for, and the various operations of the organisation. In the course of their employment, staff members are exposed to various kinds of training and development in order to update their skills and develop their potential. These forms of training and development include seminars, workshops, job rotation and enrichment, coaching, encouraging employees to go for advanced qualifications and so on and so forth. As a company, we need to evaluate the effectiveness of these training programs to ensure that these programs have been beneficial not only to the employees but to Venture Interiors as a company. This is quite a task because training courses do not have a system of assessment or standardisation, which can guarantee learning, has been achieved to a specific standard. However, right from the beginning we had specific aims we were trying to achieve, for example some staff members needed painting and decorating skills, have these skills been improved, how has it affected their job performance, has it affected their attitudes positively, has it given them more self confidence and motivation, what do they think about the training they received, do they think they have benefited from it? Usage of tests could also be very helpful in the evaluation. The information acquired from this evaluation is very useful to the human resource manager as it could be of help in providing ideas of how to increase the effectiveness of current or later training and development activities. Nowadays it is also essential to carryout appraisals regularly in the company. Before I go any further, what are appraisals? Appraisals are sessions held between the employers and the employees to ensure they are on the right track at work and are clear on what they need to do going forward. In Venture Interiors, appraisals are carried out every four months. The employees are appraised by their fellow colleagues, supervisors, managers and clients. The appraiser sits down with the appraisee, and exchange their opinions. The appraiser makes sure they highlight the successes as well as the areas of improvement, praise the employee where it is necessary, where there is need for training and development propose something. Appraisals are not only beneficial to the company but to the employee too. The employee maybe motivated and this will benefit the company in the long run. Motivation is a very important aspect. Job satisfaction is often a strong motivator in work performance, as satisfied employees will go the extra mile and this is what our company needs. Rewards such as salaries apart, there are other ways of helping employees feel satisfied by their jobs. Venture Interiors is an interior designing company, therefore we are employing designers and artists, artists love creativity, and in order to motivate them, we encourage our employees to be creative in their work and prevent boredom, rotate tasks so that their work is challenging, appreciate ideas and suggestions the employees and even reward them for the initiatives. This way we have been able to motivate our staff and this has not only benefited them but venture Interiors as a company.

Friday, January 3, 2020

New Human Management in Schuler R.S. Repositioning the...

The extract from Schuler R S ‘Repositioning the Human Resource Function’ suggests that in the future, the function of human resource management would work up to matching the same importance as other functional areas within a firm. In order to fully discover the future direction of human resource management and whether the function will be of the same level of importance as other functional areas, it is necessary to examine the areas in which Schuler mentioned. The areas within human resource management that are to be examined are performance management, recruitment and selection and talent management; current issues of human resource management can also have an effect of the future direction of the functional area. Armstrong (2009)†¦show more content†¦Fundamentally, performance management is a positive and forward looking process which has two main purposes of operational and measure. The operational purpose, which involves leading, managing and controlling, and the measure purpose, which includes measuring the effectiveness or efficiency of the workforce; share the interlinked processes of managing poor performances and managing improving performance in order for the organisation to continue to grow. The function of performance management is in place for employees to gain better results by understanding and managing performance within a framework of planned goals, standards and competency requirements, this then develops a shared understanding about what is to be achieved and how it is to be carried out. Brumbach (1988) suggested that ‘human performance is managed in order to achieve positive successes, avoid negative success and failures and be hospitable to positive failuresà ¢â‚¬â„¢. As Brumback suggests, performance management aligns the employee’s objectives and enables expectations to be defined leaving them to identify their own goals and successes. Performance management is often seen as primarily developmental which is why it may be referred to as ‘performance and development management’. Gheorghe and Hack (2007) stated that ‘actively managing performance is simply running a business – running the entire business as one entity. It’s a continuous cycle ofShow MoreRelatedEvolving Hr Roles In Indian Mncs. Dr.Zuhaib Ahmad, . Post4266 Words   |  18 PagesInternationalization, MNCs 1.0. Human Resource Management: Recent Trends Internationalization is examined from different approaches, each tending to produce different perceptions of how advanced or pervasive the process is and the extent of its influence over human resource policies and practices (Sparrow 2007). After 1990s, a different concept of Human Resource Management (HRM) began to gain ground. At the heart of the new approach was the belief that the management of people gives an organizationRead MoreThe Role of Strategic Groups in Understanding Strategic Human Resource Management15467 Words   |  62 Pagesemeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm The role of strategic groups in understanding strategic human resource management Judie M. Gannon Oxford School of Hospitality Management, Faculty of Business, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK The role of strategic groups 513 Liz Doherty Business School, Shefï ¬ eld Hallam University, Shefï ¬ eld, UK, and Angela Roper School of Hospitality Tourism Management, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK Abstract Purpose – This article aims to explore how