Improve Own Practice in Learning and Development Essay Example for Free

Improve Own Practice in Learning and Development Essay Why LD practitioners must engage in reflective practice and continue CPD. Analyse own values, beliefs and attitudes and the impact on their practice. Engaging in Reflective practice is associated with the improvement of the quality of care, stimulating personal, professional growth and the closing gap between theory between theory and practice. J Dewey was among the first to consider the questions of psychology and the theory of knowledge, I liked Brookfield (1998) as his concept explained discussing and talking and contemplating through the learner’s eyes. The appeal of the use of reflective practice is that as teaching and learning are complex, and there is not one right approach, reflecting on different versions of teaching, and reshaping past and current experiences will lead to improvement. Schà ¶n’s (1983) reflection–in-action assists practitioners in making the professional knowledge that they will gain from their experience in the classroom an explicit part of their decision-making. Research base practices strongly supports the importance of the teacher/ facilitator being a highly trained, reflective professional. The importance of reflecting on what you are doing, as part of the learning process, has also been empathised by many investigators, for example the second stage of Kolb’s (1984) learning cycle, reflective observation. Reflective observation can be an important tool in practice based professional learning settings where individuals learning from their own professional experiences, rather than from formal teaching or knowledge transfer, maybe the most important source of personal professional development and improvement. Another way to look at it is through Lewin/Kolb’s single-loop learning, and the Argyris and Schà ¶n concept double-loop learning which were mapped from the works of Ashby (1960) while working on cybernetics. Single-loop learning is like a thermostat that learns when it is too hot or too cold and turns the heat on or off. The thermostat can perform this task because it can receive information (the temperature of the room) and take  corrective action. Double-loop learning occurs when an error is detected and corrected in ways that involve the modification of an organization’s underlying norms, policies and objectives. Double loop learning uses feedback from past actions to question assumptions underlying current views. Davies (2012) explained the benefits to reflective practice Increased learning from an experience for situation Promotion of deep learning Identification of personal and professional strengths and areas for improvement Identification of educational needs Acquisition of new knowledge and skills Further understanding of own beliefs, attitudes and values Encouragement of self-motivation and self-directed learning Could act as a source of feedback Possible improvements of personal and clinical confidence . There are a number of ways to monitor your performance regularly, capturing incidental/experienced learning by keeping a self-reflective journal, by reading it over and over again I can begin to analyse achievements however small they seem and develop a greater level of self-awareness. This is where I try to recognise the needs to enhance my own learning so that a bigger benefit for the learner to progress and achieve something in their future. Firstly I identified my own preferred learning style as everyone learns in different ways. There are many ways to establish your preferred way of learning and as supported by Reece and Walker (2009), â€Å"All students are individuals and no two students learn the same way†. To move forward in life, we all need to improve our ideas, broaden relevant knowledge and skills. Getting constructive feedback (for example, learners, peers, mentors and colleagues) are important aspects of reflection. Performance indicators of the organisation are identified, it shows whether I am current with the ways of facilitating and is it having an impact on learners. It will also show how I am performing, what is going well and where I need training or guidance i.e.  learning Microsoft office at college, enabling me to have computing vocational skills. Utilising the S.W.O.T analysis where I am able to identify my strengths: Supportive Judicious Communication skills Imaginative and observant I am able to identify my weaknesses: Inability to refrain from helping Being too talkative Too altruistic This ensures me I am performing to the best that I can and that I am meeting all the standards and expectations within the organisations policies and procedures. The guidance of a mentor is an advantage for they have had similar experiences and understanding of their issues with self-development. There will be times when I will need support and advice to move my career forward and achieve life goals, so it is best to have an effective relationship. Some factors that help to build an effective relationship; Mutual respect Honesty and direct communication Acceptance and flexibility Commitment Trust Some shared values Willingness, to work through obstacles â€Å"Mentoring is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills,  improve their performance and become the person they want to be† (E Parsole, The oxford school of coaching mentoring) I believe that all individuals are created equally, thus all have the ability to learn equally. Resisting from a classroom culture of control, with the correct amount of care and tutoring, learners would be able to participate in classes with simplified understanding. Providing adequate feedback is an important aspect, I always try to rephrase a question with learners so not only do they understand and try to answer correctly, they feel great when they receive feedback which motivates them to learn. When I provide learners with time and space to be aware of their own knowledge and their own thinking, student ownership increases. Research shows that metacognition can be taught (Visible Learning, 2009). Using reflective practice I am able to instil values that the learner can use in their life and work.

The personal qualities required to fulfill the role of the modern ambulance paramedic

The personal qualities required to fulfill the role of the modern ambulance paramedic The role of the modern paramedic is one of a highly trained emergency-care professional gone are the days of the stretcher-bearer (NHS careers booklet, p10) Paramedics are set the task of providing a rapid medical response to emergency situations like road traffic accidents (RTAs) accidents at home or even major incidents such as train crashes. This work involves on-site assessment of patients and their immediate needs, as well as providing necessary treatment. For example paramedics are trained to be able to administer intravenous drips and oxygen, and use equipment such as a heart defibrillator on patients that need immediate help. Through their work, paramedics are likely to encounter emotionally charged and distressing situations. There is also a danger element involved in the role when patients can become violent towards those trying to help them attacks on ambulance staff from one service have increased 23% over the last year alone (BBC). Paramedics can thus been seen to work within a stressful and pressured work environment, where lives can be affected by the outcome of their actions. This can be made even more difficult by the long working hours (a shift can be 12 hours) and shift pattern involved in the ambulance service. The role therefore has a large amount of responsibility, and the ambulance service has a number of qualities they look for in their applicants. The NHS careers booklet Becoming a member of the ambulance service (p8) lists that as a paramedic, the most important qualities include; responsibility, a caring attitude, good people skills, common sense, ability to keep cool in a crisis and academic ability. Why the ambulance service looks for these qualities will now be discussed. Intellectual ability identified through academic qualifications is required by the ambulance service. This is due to the amount of training and expert emergency care knowledge that must be gained before someone is able to qualify to work as a paramedic. Hospital and classroom based training is given to paramedics in subjects including trauma injuries, intubation, cannulation, pharmacology, the respiratory system and in how to use specialised equipment. A paramedic is also required to provide a driving function so must have a clean driving license which will be enhanced through emergency driving training. The ability to learn quickly is therefore a strong point to anyone wanting to join the service. On arriving at an emergency scene, a paramedic must be able to ascertain both what has happened, and which patients are to be given priority over others. Although other emergency services such as the fire brigade and police will also be present at many call-outs those first on the scene have to be able to quickly assess the situation. This is where the ability to keep a cool head and to not make rash decisions is important. Being able to stay calm despite what might be going on at the scene itself, will allow the paramedic to recall training on how to deal with different injuries, and to make tough decisions when needed about who to treat and perhaps who not to treat (when medical resources are scare a paramedic may have to decide who has the best chance of recovering and allocate assistance accordingly). Communication and people-skills are a necessity within the job. Good communication skills will allow a more accurate assessment of the situation through uncovering what has happened, how many people were involved (injured parties may not always be immediately visible for example a young child thrown from the window of a car in an RTA) or whether there is any remaining danger. As mentioned earlier, assessing whether danger is present (such as whether people at the scene are armed) is important for both the well being of the patient and the ambulance crew themselves. Being able to talk to people and keep both patients and family or others on the scene calm can make the situation easier to control, and maintaining conversation with a patient can help to retrieve important information that may be needed for their treatment (allergies, name of doctor, next of kin) but also to help keep people conscious which may be important for their chances of recovery. As many emergencies can be the result of a crime that has taken place, the ability to preserve evidence and remember information given by injured parties can be very important (for example, people that die later in hospital may have given important information to others at the scene potentially including the paramedic). The ability to take control in a situation is also an important quality needed for those working in emergency care. Paramedics may often have to direct recovery efforts in a team that may be made up of different emergency services where workers may not know each other, and where time may be of the essence. Leadership qualities are needed in order that control can be taken over a situation, to ensure that resources are allocated where needed, and that work is not being duplicated. Alongside the qualities discussed that are outlined in the careers booklet provided by the NHS, it will also be important for paramedics to be good team-players and trustworthy. These qualities are proposed as important due to the fact that paramedics may have to work within environments which are not safe. As a result it would be very important for the ambulance crew (usually comprising an ambulance technician and a paramedic, sometimes and emergency doctor) to trust each other and work well together within situations whereby teams may be forced to rely to a great extent possibly for their own well-being, on their team member (s). In summary the ambulance service are looking for very specific sort of person that matches the qualities outlines above, in order to perform the very difficult and distressing work involved in the emergency services to the capacity that they do London ambulance service alone receives 3000 emergency calls a day.

The Pritting Press Essay -- essays research papers

In 1440 a man by the man of Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type, or as we know it, a printing press. Prior to 1440 everything read in Europe was copied by hand or copied from wooden blocks carved from hand. This was very expensive and time consuming. The only people who were literate were those of the church and a small percentage of nobility. Since the printing press came out, how would this effect European culture and the way things worked?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The printing press had many effects on Europe. Very few peasants could read and besides that there wasn’t much to read but scriptures. The things that were being read were hand written and of course this took a long time and so not many people wanted to take the time to do it. Monks spent there days and nights copying and writing scriptures in solitude. At the time Latin was the only language the bible was written in, this was about to change.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The time the printing press was invented was the era of the Renaissance. The Renaissance era is known for inventions and art and new ideas. The printing press was just one of the many inventions that came out of the Renaissance era. I believe this to be one of the biggest inventions to come out around this time because it changed everything and the way we read now. I am sure that someone else later would have thought of this but for the time if brought on new ideas.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some of the ideas that came about we...

Analysis of Buried Child by Sam Shepard Essay -- Buried Child Sam Shep

Analysis of Buried Child by Sam Shepard Sam Shepard has always written plays that have numerous illusions to frustrate the reader. Shepard has also been known for several twists in his plays, and also makes the reader believe in something that is not real. Born in 1943, Shepard always enjoyed Theatre and Playwriting. Now, nearly 60 years of age, Shepard is one of the most famous playwrights in America. In Shepard’s Buried Child, there are many twists and turns that have the reader wondering and wanting more. Buried Child can be similar to classic plays such as Oedipus Rex, where Shepard includes the theme of incest. He has also included many symbolic objects and Native American symbols of renewal with the large quantity of vegetables in the backyard of the family’s house. There are seven main characters in this play, the majority belonging to one family. The first impression seems like the family in the play are a normal Middle American family. Dodges one-track alcoholic mind, Halie’s irritating personality, and Tilden’s distant relationship with his father seems fairly typical of an elderly family; however, this is far from the truth. The play begins with Dodge, who is in his seventies, may not have much longer to live. He has an unhealthy cough, which gives the thought that he is extremely ill. In the play, Shepard is pointing out that Dodge is not only sick physically, but also mentally. His vicious cough seems to show the progression of his illness throughout the play. The introduction of Tilden, Dodge’s son, is quite unusual; he enters the house with an armful of corn and drops it in front of his father. The significance of this action will be noticed further into the play. When Tilden brings the corn in from the backyard, his father looks at him and tells him to give the corn back, thinking he has stolen it. Dodge snaps, "I haven't planted corn back there since 1935, so take that damn corn back form where ever you got it.† Yet, Tilden argues that the entire back yard is filled with tall stalks of corn, carrots and potatoes. Tilden is a young man living with his parents after getting in trouble in New Mexico. Halie, Tilden’s mother and Dodge’s wife, is abnormally protective of Tilden, which he is not allowed to do or say anything without the permission of Dodge or herself. Halie is constantly worrying about Ti... ...the family, and will hopefully lead them in a positive direction. The ending of this play comes to the conclusion that this family can never be a normal Middle American family. This family is at a loss, and will probably never see life the way that they have before. I believe the message Shepard is trying to reach out to the reader is that secrets and dishonesty can tear a family apart and make them go insane. Unfortunately for this play, the terrible secret was exposed too late. Shepard created an ending which the world could appreciate its simplicity yet complications. Buried Child explores the inner tensions of a rural existence, father-son relationships, and the place women hold in an ambiguous domestic atmosphere. Simply poetic, humorous, and mysterious, Buried Child is a vision of a troublesome family transformed into a symbol of America's loss of innocence. This play made Shepard a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1979, and is very much earned. Bibliography Jacobus, Lee A. 1994. The Bedford Introduction to Drama--Third edition. Microphil Publications. American Repertory Theatre. â€Å"Past Productions: Buried Child.† Dec. 96 http://www.amrep.org/past/buried/buried.html

Essay --

INTRODUCTION Security threats are potential causes of unwanted incident which may result in becoming harmful to the system or organization and assets. The security threats are destruction, modification or unauthorized disclosure of information, destruction or loss of the IT assets, spam and malware. Social networking is a dedicated website or application that enables users to informally communicate with each other by posting, tweet, comment and share. Some example of social networking site is Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and LinkedIn. A social networking is built on trust. It is designed for communication that allows users to directly interact with each others. Social networking helps to form network of associates, friend, relatives and acquaintances. It enables users to share information about daily life and have intimate relation with others. There are huge numbers of users in social media Facebook is the highest popular rate that has 1.15 billion users and half of it access to the Facebook every day. Based on social media today until November 2013, there are more than 10 million applications developed in Facebook. Twitter becomes the second most popular media social which has more than 500 million users and 288 million are active users. There are about 20 million fake accounts in Twitter. This number of social networking users will increase in time. By this huge numbers of users in social media there is high risk for users to expose to the social networking threats. Cybercriminals have become more smart and crafty in manipulating with advance technology. It is abusing the users in social media by breaking the users trust. They take advantage of user relationship to click on malicious link or advertisement to get to the... ...ing and this gives the chances for malicious links and threats to disguise as one of the advertisement based on the user interest. User unknowingly will click on these links that popped up to close it, but some of them will already have the access to the user information. There are also bot accounts that will post their contents to the user’s wall; some even post the contents to the user’s groups and friends when the user click on the link that pique their interest. 2. Mobile platform The increment of mobile phone users also inspires the growth of social media users. The rise of social media is inextricably linked with the revolution in mobile computing, which has spawned a huge industry in mobile application development. Naturally, whether using their own or company-issued mobile devices, the users will download many mobile applications just because they want to.

Huckleberry Finn vs. Tom Sawyer Essay

Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are very different characters. I think that is what made them such great friends. Tom is always out to have a good time and doesn’t care who he hurts to do it. Huck always follows Tom’s lead even though sometimes he shouldn’t. Huck Finn grew up in a very rough environment. His father was a drunk who would disappear for months on random occasions. Huck is typically dirty and homeless. Eventually he goes to live with Widow Douglas who continually tries to reform Huck, but he resists and keeps his own ways. He said â€Å"The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn’t stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied.†(2) Huck is also a follower mostly of his good friend Tom. â€Å"But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable. So I went back.† (2) This is really the first time Huck has been educated and is taught about religion. Huck grew up in a much tougher environment then his close friend Tom, but he still has a good heart and was an easy going guy. He says â€Å"We said there wasn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.† (42) Tom is Huck’s best friend. They are about the same age but grew up in completely different situation. Tom grew up in white middle class family in a nice comfortable environment. Tom is clearly the leader of the two because Huck is always following his lead. Huck says â€Å"Tom told me what his plan was, and I see in a minute it was worth fifteen of mine for style, and would make Jim just as free a man as mine would, and maybe get us all killed besides. So I was satisfied, and said we would waltz in on it.† (66) Also Huck says â€Å"Tom Sawyer wouldn’t back out so I won’t.† Another thing that is different is Tom is willing to keep a secret that hurts a lot of people. He knows Mrs. Watson has died, but keeps it a secret for his own enjoyment. He could have told and Jim would have been free, but all he cared about was his plan to escape and how fun it was going to be. You  can clearly see the differences between Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. There are many examples in the book that show that. Tom is the leader and Huck is the follower. The biggest difference is the morals of the two. Tom kept a secret that hurt people and all Huck wanted to do was free Jim. After everything said Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are best friends. They get along so well and will be friends for life.

Bias-Free Language Essay

In her article Bias-Free Language, Rosalie Maggio tackles the problem of the heightened sensitivity in our multicultural America among minority groups who deem certain words offensive. She completes two objectives in her article. The first is to explain the importance of becoming aware of bias in language, and the second is to offer solutions of words and phrases to use in place of biased language. As Maggio explains, language â€Å"both reflects and shapes society. † In a similar vein, culture is also determined by our language and in turn, culture guides the evolution of language. For this reason, Maggio argues that we should do what we can to eliminate certain words or phrases in our language that have been deemed to be offensive or in some way not accurate. If we allow these biases in language to continue, bigoted people in our society will continue to willfully dehumanize segments of the population with words and phrases that have a limited basis in reality. Maggio explains that biased words, such as the use of â€Å"man† in many different contexts, i. e. manmade, mailman, etc. , are often inaccurate and vague. She advocates for individuals to expand their vocabulary and use the opportunity to develop new phrases and more creative, accurate ways of saying things and cites many authors throughout history that have done just that, hoping that these examples will encourage others to do the same. Maggio does a good job in preparing a case against using biased language. She also does well in refuting attempts at underscoring her project. She has many good points which would be valuable to a society willing to change the way it views the world and the people around them.