Confucian In Japan Essay Example for Free

Confucian In japan Es phraseIt is fundamental that anyone that wants to understand the Japanese understand their commission of life, their cultural roots. To be Japanese is to be Confucian. In Japan, in that location is an align and a structure to every aspect of life from older brother to junior brother on up to emperor and phalanx. There is a Confucian saying, a code of conduct that they live and die by.Only when things are investigated is association extended only when knowledge is extended are thoughts sincere only when thoughts are sincere are minds rectified only where minds are rectified are the characters of persons cultivated only when character is cultivated are families regulated only when families are regulated are states well governed only when states are well governed is there peace in the world (Neo, The Confucian Ethics of Raise the Red Lantern, par. 1). Japans attack on collect Harbor was strategic permit me explain why and how.The rise of militarism in Japan wasnt just sparked by the imperialist West. Japan has a long history of militarist behaviors and relationships internally and externally. Japans foundations in Confucianism exemplify their loyalty to master. This loyalty is first and foremost because, according to Confucius, the emperor is a mandate of heaven, hence, deifying the emperor. Militarism in Japan began to carry itself during the Yamamoto period and has continued to grow throughout time. Military structure can be seen through the samurai class and the emergence of the shogun.Japan had almost a three hundred year period of time where they remained closed. No one was allowed to leave and no one was allowed to enter. During this time, there werent any wars internally or externally. The West re-opened Japan as a stopping point for trade with China. The re-opening of Japan would ultimately be the beginning of hostility between Japan and the West. For some time after(prenominal) Japan had to modernize so that they cou ld keep up with the West and be considered a world contender. The Meiji Restoration ultimately revolutionized Japan.Within three years the virgin government had abolished the domain, erased hereditary status distinctions, and allowed people to change their occupations and move about the country. Ironically for a government that owed its origins to the movement to revere the emperor and expel the barbarians, it invited foreigners to instruct Japanese in things Western and launched a drive to bring modern industry and a modern military to Japan (Walthall 44). During Japans modernization and fight for supremacy, the West issued them unequal treaties for their military.The West did this several times. This decision would prove to be fatal for the West. In September 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite agreement with Germany and Italy. Germany insisted that any alliance would have to be directed against the United States and Britain (Craig 123). Germany ultimately betrayed Japan and in an act of desperation, Japan attacked the United States. When you consider Japans deep roots in Confucianism and their desire for supremacy, ethnically and militarily, it is easy to understand their disdain for the West.Japan knew that they had to learn from the West, emulate what they do as seen during the Meiji Restoration, in order to defeat them. Japan had the ability to take what the West taught and make it better. If you think about it, it was a brilliant plan. Japans only downfall was that their military was to spread out between China and the United States. Had they actually not been, we might actually live in a very different world. To say that the attack on Pearl Harbor was merely a tactical move completely underestimates the Japanese. It is a foolish way to think and discredits their history.Japan has a history that the West can draw from. Its like comparing an old wise person to a young person. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a strategic move, one that failed, but strateg ic indeed. Walthall, Anne. Modern Japan. United States of America Scholarly Resources Inc. , 2002. Craig, Albert M. The Heritage of Japanese Civilization. New Jersey Prentice-Hall, 2003. Neo, David. The Confucian Ethics of Raise the Red Lantern. Senses of Cinema. August 2004. 18 March 2009 http//archive. sensesofcinema. com/contents/cteq/04/33/raise_red_lantern. html.

Agriculture in the Uae Essay Example for Free

Agriculture in the Uae EssayAgriculture in the UAE lie in the heart of the worlds arid zone, the UAE has little rainfall and one would expect it to be a barren place. Barren places there certainly are, but the cultivate of desertification has very largely been arrested in the country. It is straightway possible to see forests, fields of grass and wheat where once there were only desert sands and winds. The UAE has a long tradition of agriculture in its oases where crops admit been grown for 5000 years. Underground water was chandelled to palm groves and small fields and the technique is still utilised today. Since the make-up of the UAE in 1971, this small scale traditional farming has been complemented by investment that has seen thousands of hectares being cultivated. In the past 25 years, the countrys population has increased ten-fold and agricultural action has kept pace with this growth. The country is self-sufficient in salad crops and poultry for much of the year an d even exports crops to markets in Europe.Most of the UAEs agricultural production comes from four bowls from in and around Al Ain, from a narrow but fertile strip along the east coast, from the oasis of Dhaid east of Sharjah and from the gravel plains in Ras al Khaimah. According to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, agricultural production stands at over Dh 2 billion per year. An average crop season yields over 600,000 tons of crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines, lettuce, cabbage and animal feed.Studies have shown that much of the countrys soil can be cultivated provided there is water and as a result, there has been an extensive course of instruction to drill water wells. The government will prepare land for local anesthetic farmers which they are then given free along with seeds, machinery and advice on pest control. in that location is also government-funded research on different crops to see how they adapt to the local climate.In an attempt to conserve and use as much water as possible in as many ways as possible, the government has embarked on a three-part programme designed to make the almost advantageous use of this scarce resource. First, farmers are given advice on how to reduce their consumption of water, mainly through trickle irrigation. Desalinated water as well as recycled and purified sewage outflowing is used. Second, with the help of the United States Geological Survey, the government is searching for ew aquifers and monitoring current rates of extraction. Third and last, to prevent the waste of valuable rainwater, retention dams have been constructed in many areas. These store the water until it can be used for irrigation. Tens of millions of gallons of rainwater are being retained by the dams already built end-to-end the Emirates. In the long run, of course, it is realized that desalinated water will provide the bulk of agricultural water. There is more than to agriculture than simply growing crops.One area that has seen dramatic growth is the keeping of poultry for meat and eggs. The same is true of dairy products. Herds of imported cattle have adapted to the climate and are now producing milk, cheese and yogurt for the local market. The presence of trees and gardens in the UAE is always noticed and commented upon by visitors. Over 10 million trees have been planted plus more than 18 million palm trees. In all the cities and towns of the UAE, there have been beautification campaigns with the creation of parks and gardens for the local people.Any householder, even those in flats, can perplex free plants from the Municipality under a programme that distributes thousands of plants annually. Besides the greening of the cities and towns there has also been a massive programme in the desert and it is here that most of the trees have been planted. Flying over the desert, one now sees great patches of green where formerly there was only sand. All kinds of arid region plants, both local and imported, have been planted and as they grow to maturity, their roots reach down to the natural water supply.When this happens, they will be able to survive with little boot and attention. The face of the land and the environment too have been changed. Wildlife flourishes as do native plants and animals. The UAE was never purely and simply a desert. Today it has become a place where greenery can be seen in both urban and rural areas. Twenty years of dedicated commitment have made the signalize that the process of desertification is reversible. And given time and money, that is exactly what has happened and is continuing to happen.

Analysis of E-grocery Systems

Analysis of E- securities labor SystemsIntroduction-The literature reviews the operative and strategicalal analysis of E- sustenance product systems. There atomic number 18 legion(predicate) occupancy mannequins in E-grocery assembly line. To make E-business model a sustainable ane they argon using different strategies in different targeted markets. Each undivided model varies from one other in several(a) dimensions such as placing of gear up, assembling and delivering the goods. The first fail of the literature declargon oneselfs statistical description of online grocery industry in various geographical and measures. The atomic number 16 part plys review of the E-grocery industrys market and its node base. The final part offers previous studies opinions and factors ab stunned various exposecomes of e-grocery business.Industry Over View-Over last five decades grocery business has transformed into innovative sector of supermarkets in UK. Many of the supermarkets changed the grocery field dramatically. These champions of consumers brought vast choices in product and price to improve their business sector. Online grocery shop and Home words system has became one of major aspects in grocery industries. The revolution of technology advancement in internet promoted grocery industries to ship on new methods in retailing industry. However, many grocers crap been un masteryful to consider the advantold ages of how it can support grocery business. These ontogenys lead to dismissal of complete-online supermarkets such as webvan, homegrocer, shoplink and homeruns (Ramus and Nielsen, 2005). These results demonstrate the necessity of c arful crafting of e-grocery strategies which exploits internet technologys potential of increasing company profit and alike guest redevelopment (porter, 2001).On one hand, strategy formulation is difficult for pure-play grocery stores since companies have not tried business models before. On the other hand, formul ation of strategies for clicks and bricks grocery shops requires strategies which go forth combine both existing retail practice and internet based shop processes ( Teo, 2002). Online shop or e-grocery retailing service involves customers online buying behaviour and practices, order fulfilment and sales pitch of order, development and maintenance of online websites to facilitate customers to enter their orders (Hong and Kim, 2004). This literature provides discernment of e-groceries and the strategic methods.Development Of Home Deliveries In The UK-In United Kingdom, from centuries home delivery of goods has been taking place. During 20th coulomb some local door to door field sales and home deliveries were go down due to rise large number of retail centres and also availability of cheap cars, however, some other home delivery business still in existence such as milk and catalogue distribution. The construct of large consumer products such as washing machines, dishwashers, refr igerators, televisions etc results in certain type of delivery methods after mid-twentieth century. (Spufford, 1994)The new-fangled development of information technology has contributed many new methods to retailing sector over the internet which drastically increases the demand of home deliveries. Online shop and home delivery became an ideal path or approach in a edict where volume themselves believe they are cash- well-to-do and time-poor for grocery or sign goods. E-commerce along with some other forms offers the opport unity for consumers to buy household goods from their homes and also to receive deliveries at their flexible timings earlier than travelling to stores. (ibid)Grocery And Grocery Industry-Groceries and other food retailers function each and every day, yet it is primal and permanent industry sectors in the business world. Everybody require food, thus everyone must and should purchase food from one or another retail discloselet. Therefore, the grocery industr y is a vast, fragmented and tremendously competitive environment ( Kelly Delaney et al, 2003 pp 187).In Great Britain, food retailing industry constitutes 36 per centum of overall retail overturn annually (Central Statistical Office, 1990). In United Kingdom the largest individual category of family expenditure and along with some other groups, which are partially sold in supermarkets, like household goods, tobacco and alcohols, clothing and leisure goods for a considerably large share of customer shop (Central Statistical Office, 1991). (Russell Aylott et al, 1998,. Pp.363)Customer Base And merchandise Trends-According to verdict (2006a), 80% of the online shoppers were of 29 to50 age group in 2002. Majority of responded shoppers were female. There are three groups of online shoppers firstly rich and busy batch who are pressed for time, secondly families with one or more young children and thirdly people who find difficulty to get into stores. The first group of people are thos e who have broad(prenominal)(prenominal) incomes and less time to shop. These people are normally high internet users, technology comprehend or family with dual income. These rich and busy people prefer someone to shop behalf of them. The second group are those who have got young children in their families. They constitute higher number of e-grocery shoppers. The age group of e-grocery shoppers is 29 to 50 categorys old with at least(prenominal) one young child under five years old. This group unremarkably spend their time in cooking dinners for their family on that pointfore they prefer shop online for regular household groceries. This category of people wants to avoid hassle situation at stores by dragging kids along with them for shopping. The final group is comparably small to other two categories. This group of people are those who find difficulty to approach shot the store environment due to several reasons like age or physical disability. People average life span incre ased in recent decades comparing to 1950s and 1960s. People average life span increased from 67.8 to 77.2 in 2007 and they estimated life span is 82.4 for 2015.Aged people and physically challenged people whitethorn hold little more exceptional help while doing shopping. They may found it as difficult to drive to supermarkets and to carry heavy household goods back to home. Online shopping go forth be the good alternative source for grocery shopping.Estimation Of Home Delivery Shopping grocery store And Market Share-In the year 1999 the total home shopping market worth was figured 12.36bn in UK market. The projected view for 2004 was 24.12bn. All sectors have been experienced by considerable branch and constant increase has been expected for following 5 years as customers accept different new channels for purchasing of goods. Traditional grocery shopping is matured market. However, recent development and offset predicts that, it has been generated by potential e-commerce and volume of grocers converted a part of their business into e-grocers. UK e-shopping was 581m worth in the year 1999 and estimated growth to 1.53bn in 2000. Verdict enquiry predicted there impart be huge growth of 3.36% of total sales in online market and it was estimated as 8.84bn by 2004(Nielsen, 2000).Market Trends In Home Shopping-E-commerce growth in recent decades (excluding some declined cases) transformed old traditional companies into technology implemented new companies. Moreover, now companies are in better position to exploit and implement new technologies to business models to grow their sales and profit. In the starting days of internet technology there were comments from academic commentators that almost of incumbent businesses were un pass oning to try internet for sales channel. There was lack of internet knowledge and also uneven distribution of tot for physical distribution. These companies distribution root have their tag names and customer base which lead h elp to command and access the funding, and provide stronger position to conjoin e-commerce (Anderson consulting, 2000).If we consider present situation, majority of internet user are males compare to females. This socio-economic difference in internet profile user also affects online shopping. Along with these higher proportion of society contains children and youth who currently own their own computer systems and access internet more than older generation. However, research depicts that some of these variations may lower over the growth of technology. For an example, the prediction of women internet user by the 2005 will increase by sextupletty percent of total UK online users. (Tesco, 2000).Many more effected retailers are likely to adopt a new approach, Multichannel retail sector implementation and development, in future. Already there are alternative channel development methods by many large retailers. It will also permit retailers to create alternative channels to black ma rket supply chains and resources from their existence channels. For manufacturing companies it will provide good opportunity to access customers directly and to formulate new methods of delivering service or product. There is an expectation of launching of new niche catalogues from major drivers in UK as growth rate penetrates. (Webb, 2000).Geographical Characteristics-Sandoval( 2002) mentioned analyst Robert Rubin said that average population density in UK is high compared to ones US. The US( 31 per sq.km) population density is eighth of the UK ( 248 per sq.km) in 2004 ( world population prospectus). Tesco and Sainsbury have become successful e-grocers in the UK. These grocers target highly populated urban areas for more potential consumers.Urban areas are densely populated, people reside very close. In large cities there are less people who own cars. There are other factors which find out online grocery shopping in urban areas such as busy lifestyle, highly crowded shopping mall s, public transport dependence for transportation and higher income.According to Mclaughlin(2005) cities are highly populated with internet users and considerable residents with disposable income. It is difficult expand online shopping to system to all geographic areas instead it could be done from one urban area to another, expanding business like this will make company delivery truck to achieve high number of deliveries at every trip.Psychographic Characteristics-Fox and kempiak (2006) mentioned five major decision elements for online grocery shopping( price, convenience, product variety, ambiance and service). He also stated several reasons to increase online shopping chances such as changing family structure, busy work schedule with increased working hours, less free time and time consuming traditional shopping methods. This sociable system transformation result in search of alternative independent grocery shopping methods. Customer with different disability made their interest towards e-shopping rather than traditional one.Woodside, Arch G. and Randolph J. Trappey (1992) mentioned that time and conveniences are the two major factors for people to switch from traditional shopping methods to electronic shopping methods. Technology should provide complete product description to satisfy different types of customer base it may be depends on several criteria such as different food preferences such as organic, religious , ethnic origin etcTechnological Characteristics-Fox and Kempiak(2006)states that, the food marketing institute indicates US consumers are highest internet users with eighty-six percent in that seventy percent will shop online daily. Whereas in the UK, broadband user are in fifth position in world and second position in Europe. E-commerce research 2007 shows 15.9 percent respondents brought groceries once in a week, 2.7 percent shops twice or thrice a month, largest group shops once or twice in a year. Increased internet users likely contribute t he growth of online shopping. Online shoppers will make more shopping than in-store shoppers.As the economy and society have changed, so retailers have responded and shopping as an activity has altered enormously. (Dawson and Broadbridge,1988). Online shopping is comparatively recent phenomenon, which provides an opportunity to consumers to carry out at least one part of buying process online.Electronic grocery shopping has been defined as shopping when at least part of transaction is started electronically via third party services or the Internet, but paying and logistics are not necessarily performed digitally. ( Carl Lewis, 2003-pp.207)E-shop business model represents one class of e-commerce where buyers and sellers act electronically with each other, except for deliveries. Burke suggests many reasons web marketing of food. As an example, everybody has to eat, and in store shopping consumes considerable time to purchase and majority people do not like grocery shopping.Daily hou sehold goods are difficult to move physically from one place to another. Continuous growth of e-commerce enlightens many traditional grocery retailers to use internet channel to sell their goods. The development leads to many more conventional retails to enter into e-grocery field (Boedeker.M, 1997 ).E-Crm-Smith believed that, customers cerebration about the shopping are predetermined whether in means of preference to products, price and accessibility. Satisfying such conditions and preferences thorough online process is carried out through purpose e-commerce website and online shopping store should focalization on creating e-loyalty. Customer family relationship management (CRM) programmes are the most effective way to incorporate loyalty. Customer service is one of the major aspects of business which includes customer assistant in sales, maintenance customer policies, providing customised services, after-sales maintenance etc. Due to the different type and nature of products wh ich are purchased at e-grocery shops there should be complete product description. Some websites provide procedures for return of product or reporting problems as a part of after-sales service. Some stores will unsatisfied customer to return their product, some websites provide vast description about their products such as ripeness of their tomatoes (smith, 2000). All online shopping websites provide some customer rules and policies. According to Australian legislation, all online websites should maintain privacy policy (Australian Federal Government, 2000).Success And Failure Factors From Previous Studies-Friends of Earth(2005) believed that e-grocery method is the best way to promote industrys brand image. However , Fox and Kempiak(2006) and Kotler (1996) stated conversely brand image of company will help to promote online grocery business. They also believed that industrys business experience and its infrastructure will be added advantage for promotion. One more factor is people ability to spend money for long duration household goods.Pachauri, Moneesha 2002 stated that ambition in e-grocery retail sector remains the same until company stay in game. If any child companys online business started down falling then agnatic company may not let it to happen for longer duration because they are inter-related in means of profit sharing. Without the demand, services of online business company will lead to business failure. Retention of existing customer is one of the main aspects of business. To tuck customer loyalty, companies should provide reward to regular shopper. Customers can also gain loyalty points for their spending and it will convert into reward coupons or vouchers. Brick and mortar stores utilises their existing business infrastructure to click and mortar stores to save on costs.Delaney-Klinger, Boyer, and Frohlich (2003) mentioned Tescos success and Webvan failure because of its marketing strategy for online business. Webvan marketed its online sa les with value-added service and extra delivery charges to cope up with online ordering cost. Tescos pricing strategy is little higher than the Webvan and its most suitable one for lower volume sales.Smith, Howard (2004) stated that online-only business spent heavy money for their highly automated warehouses. The operating costs for these warehouses are high and order volumes for those companies are not more than half of their capacity. High initial start up cost for online division, although pricing strategy can able to fall cost for internal order picking and delivery methods. However, Delaney-Klinger et al (2003) believed that the expenditure for short run will increase business cost for warehouse methods and slack for existing store picking methods comparably. High initial start-up cost will results at higher risk for any organisation. Another aspect for failure will be lack of online business management knowledge and experience. Blythman, Joanna (2005) stated that, companies are not concentrating much on customer relation management for stabilising business consistently. Traditional grocers have more advantage over online grocers in this area.Conclusion-Online shopping and home delivery service is one of the critical aspects of e-grocery business. E-grocery business should have to sympathize the variable cost affecting structures and service concepts in order to turn online grocery business into profitable one. The different strategies were discussed. Analysing and adopting best strategy for e-grocery business is mast important. This literature provided insight of e-groceries. In a service context, as with product marketing, getting and keeping customers is of utmost importance. With service, in particular, someone within the organization will interact with customers hence they should be viewed as customer relationships not just customers. Customer relationships have to be built and a useful way of covering these developments as a life cycle. The mark eting objective will change as the customer proceeds through the cycle. Understanding service marketing is change state increasingly important for all organizations as more firms seek to differentiate their product or services through their service offering. Interaction and customer relationship concepts, two key areas of service marketing are set to be of even greater importance to all firms in the future.enquiry MethodologyResearch topic Strategic and Economic analysis of E-grocery system in Tesco and Sainsbury (Online shopping and home delivery methods).Background Of Home Delivery System And Its Characteristics-Home delivery is generally defined as delivering of all types of goods to customers homes (or any different location opted by customer example workplace) regardless online or any other order forms such as traditional mailing, telephone-based ordering (phone order), internet, fax or order made in person by consumer in store premises. The teach is carried out in business to customer order delivery system rather than business to business.Home delivery system refers to all household goods delivered to consumers house (the polish may change such as work place on customers selection). Hence in online shopping and home delivery method the purchased physical household goods is carried out to customers destination by specialised home delivery unit or companies instead of customers themselves. There are some reasons for home deliveries like (i) may be the retail outlet itself provide an additional service to their customers or ( ii) may be customer do not like to carry the shopped goods at that instance or the required product may be out-of-stock at that moment or (iii) due to goods weight or size ( if it became difficulty to customer to transport by themselves) or (iv) because the seller itself does not have any physical store and may be its complete operation depends on the virtual(prenominal) online store. Thus customer may face impossible situation to collect the goods in store by themselves. (Farahmand and Young, 1998 Nielsen, 2000)Problem Statement-On one hand, many customers are interested to do online shopping for their household goods, but yet they are not interest to abandon shopping in-store in traditional way. well-nigh of the people still believed that, online shopping is too expensive. On the other hand, many more industries also made their effort to build online stores by providing this extra service to the customers. Organisations are continuously striving hard to build different strategic approaches for fulfilment of orders in profitable way. However, online unit business will add extra expenditure to grocers with or without some nominal charges. The profit margin is comparably very low in e-grocery to traditional one. Many grocers have undertaken to provide online shopping experience for their customers with different strategies. Profit margin is very low and sustainability in this industry is difficult. In the hi story of grocery sector many more companies introduced online shopping and home delivery units and failed.Purpose Of The Study-The online shopping and home delivery is still in emergent phase. E-grocery business is very challenging field and it provides an wondrous opportunities for business. E-groceries made many more efforts to implement various strategies and service concepts, there is no much research carried out in this area. This research learn is provides insight of e-grocery methods in retail sector, identifies operating strategies and strategic and economic analysis of home delivery methods in Sainsbury and Tesco.Main Research Questions-This research study is carried out to understand the factors of e-grocery success by trying to find answer to following research questions.How Tescos and Sainsburys online units are functioning strategies to its success?What are the business models they are following? How are they bear upon their order? Should they use warehouse system or in-store picking system?Whether home delivery system is profitable or not?How should online unit function to achieve operational efficiency and how they are managing customer relationship?Hypothesis Home delivery is neither a profitable nor a strategic contributor to Tesco and Sainsbury.Research Objectives-The objective of this study is to find out the above was mentioned research explained empirically by using various research methods. Our approach is comparative in nature. The steps adopted in our study are as follows(1) Identification of the industries under study(2) Study of background of the industries(3) Interpretation of appropriateness of strategies and methods of individual firm(4) Analysis of home delivery methods impact on organisational performance from individual firm.Research Approach And Methodology-Research data collection is carried out both quantitatively and qualitatively. It will become difficult to distinguish between these two methods. Generally quantitative research method means collecting numeric data or coded information for objective analysis, data will be later interpreted.Qualitative research method is data collection by observations by peoples activity generally and they are noted in coded description. However, this codified information can be used for later analysis. The important form of this method is frequently reporting and interpretations by researcher by timely observation.A semi structured interview will be carried out during research which consists of analysis of six Sainsbury and six Tesco stores for data collection about home delivery. Interviews will be carried out with key persons like grocery manager, online delivery driver, and duty manager etc in each store to collect the quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data will be calculated and qualitative data will be poised for analysis. And results will be drawn from the following methods.This study uses semi-structured quantitative primary analysis (in terview for data collection) and majorly uses qualitative method (secondary source) to identify UK grocery sector and to focus to answer research questions stated. Interviews will provide large amount of information which is main source of information and key pathway for time-constrained studies such as this (Esterberg, 2002). faux pas Study And Historical Analysis Method-According to Yin (1989), there are mainly five major investigating methods in social science research namely surveys, archival analysis, case studies, experiments and historic analysis. He also distinguish them on the basis of three criteria those are i) what kind of research question will be asked, ii) what will the degree of control over present behavioural consequences and iii) present emphasis compared to past events. Case studies and historical analysis are suited approaches to evaluate strategies of organisations. These methods are useful to describe and answer the how and/or why scenario when events happen beyond researcher control and also while researching present phenomenon in real-life time.Inductive and deductive approaches will be used for analysis of research data. Inductive way means drawing the general conclusions from researcher based on empirical grounds. Deductive approach means drawing the conclusions from researchers logical reasoning (Ghauri,et.Al,. 1995).This study focus on collecting information regarding operational strategies of Tesco and Sainsbury and to understand, why they are providing online shopping facility to customers while many of the supermarket failed to stay in game. During the process of study, the companies actions or strategic implementations from them are beyond the control of researcher, case study and historical analysis methods will be best, for a part of research.Meta-Analysis-On this part, research study is carried out through qualitative meta-analysis for selected e-grocery organisations. Answers to main research questions will be collected qu alitatively for each individual case (Lyons, 2003). The collected data will be analysed and possible relationships between business models and various out comes will be fetched out. This method is used to compare operations characteristics and strategies of Tesco and Sainsbury from the gathered data. This is the systematic approach for cross comparison of business models.There are few draw backs in meta-analysis such as, since data collected from various sources hence results quality is directly depends on the quality of source. Another, may companies may use similar strategic approach to achieve their goals which may be rarely identical. There is no unique approach to analyse data for meta-analysis. This effort is made to reveal answers from sustain information from various sources (Graney and Engle, 1990).Significance And Limitations-The study is carried out on case studies and available literature for the analysis of success in online grocery business, hope this study helps to f ind the major research questions.Study carried out to compare business models of only two named companies. This study is limited to only e-grocery business of Tesco and Sainsburys home delivery methods.Dissertation will be carried out only in the grocery section and applicability of results to other departments is not recommended.Dissertation will be carried out for sample quantity which will restrict the chances of generalisation.References-AC Nielsen (2000) the Retail Pocket Book, 2000.Burke, R. R. 1997. Real Shopping in a Virtual Store. Peterson R. A. (editor). Electronic Marketing and the Consumer. universal gravitational constant Oaks Sage Publications, 81-88.Boedeker, M. 1997. Recreational Shopping, The role of the basic emotional dimensions of personality. Turku Publications of the Turk u School of Economics and Business Administration. Series A-91997Blythman, Joanna (2005) Shopped The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets, Second Edition, 2005, harpist Perennial, Hammersm ith.Ramus, K. and Nielsen, N.A. (2005). Online Grocery Retailing What Do Consumers Think? Internet Research, 15 (3), 335-352.Porter, M.E. (2001). Strategy and the Internet. Harvard Business Review, 79 (3), 62-78.Hong, S. and Kim J. (2004). Architectural Criteria for Website Evaluation Conceptual Framework And Empirical Validation. demeanour and Information Technology, 23 (5), 337-357.Teo, T.S.H., (2002). Attitudes toward Online Shopping and the Internet. Behaviour and Information Technology, 21 (4), 259-271.Hong, S. and Kim J. (2004). Architectural Criteria for Website Evaluation Conceptual Framework And Empirical Validation. Behaviour and Information Technology, 23 (5), 337-357.Anderson Consulting (2000), E-Europe connecting the dots, Anderson consulting.Australian Federal Government 2000, Privacy Act, Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000( Cth), Canberra, Australia.Smith, E. 2000, E-Loyalty How to Keep Customers Coming Back To Your Website, Harper Business, New York.Ghaur i, P.N., Gronhaug, K., Kristianslund, I. (1995), Research Methods in Business Studies A concrete Guide, Prentice Hall 1995Esterberg, K G (2002) Qualitative Methods in Social Research, 2002, McGraw-Hill, Boston.Delaney-Klinger, K., Boyer, K. K., Frohlich, M. (2003). The return of online grocery shopping a comparative analysis of Webvan and Tescos operational methods. The TQM Magazine, 15(3), 187-196.Graney, M. J. Engle, V. F. (1990, September). Meta-analysis techniques. Journal of Gerontological Nursing,Fox, M. A., Kempiak, M. (2006). Online grocery shopping Consumer motives, concerns, and business models.Friends of the Earth (2005), Briefing The Tesco Takeover, June 2005, Friends of the Earth, London.Kotler, Philip (1996) Marketing Management Analysis, Planning, Implementation andControl, Eighth Edition, 1996, Prentice Hall. Europe.Pachauri, Moneesha (2002) Consumer Behaviour a literary productions Review, The Marketing Review, 2002, 2, pp. 319355.Smith, Howard (2004) Superma rket Choice and Supermarket Competition in Market Equilibrium, The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 71, 2004, pp235-263.McLaughlin, K. (2005). Pricelines ex-CEO puts eggs in basket of an online grocer. Wall Street Journal, p. B7Russell Aylott and Vincent- Wayne Mitchell, 1998- An exploratory study of grocery shopping stressors- International Journal of retailing and distribution management, volume 26, number 9, 1998, Pp.363Spufford, M (1994) the pedlar, The Historian and the Folklorist Seventeenth Century Communications, Folklore, Vol. 105, pp. 13-24.Farahmand, R and Young, M. (1998) Home shopping and its future. Paper presented at the 10th annual TRICS conference, 22-23rd September.Webb, G. (2000) The multi-channel route and need to keep a cool head, in E-logistics Magazine, September.Tesco (2000), Tesco press release i-village and Tesco.com, 19th July.Verdict (2006a), How Britain Shops 2006 Food and Grocery, Verdict Research Limited,May 2006, London.Woodside, Arch G. and Randol ph J. Trappey (1992) Finding out why customers shop your store and buy your brand Automatic cognitive processing models of primary choice, Journal of Advertising Research, November/December 1992, pp.52-78.Yin, R.K. (1989), Case Study Research Design and Methods, Sage Publications 1989http//www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/ ,accessed on 22/09/09

If global warming is a man-made disaster why have governments around the world failed to do very much about it?

If realness-wide melt is a man- do disaster why see governments rough the world failed to do very much about it?One of the most important phenomena affecting nations in the 21st century is spheric warming. spherical warming is defined generally as the progressive rise in average global temperatures caused by increased emissions of greenhouse gases, and is often referred to as the effect on the climate of human activities1. Though there have always been natural cycles of changing climate, global warming is considered to be man-made due to increased hot of fossil fuels and large-scale deforestation, which have led to a large increment in carbon dioxide emissions, coinciding with steadily rising temperatures2. Although efforts have been made to down the personal effects of global warming, governments around the world have failed to effectively tackle the issue. There atomic number 18 several reasons for this failure, including the problem of governing the commons, effects on t he economy, as well as the difficulty in achieving global cooperation over the issue. This essay aims to discuss and analyse the main reasons why governments have failed to succeederfully reduce global warming. One of the most fundamental reasons why very little has been achieved by governments in the effort to combat global warming lies with the difficulty of governing the commons. When a resource is not under jurisdiction of a single sovereign say, it is considered to be part of the commons, implying unrestricted access to anyone3. This means that no individual state has reason to preserve the resource, but rather to recognise as much of it for themselves as possible, usually leading to over exploitation4. The other issue with the commons is that they ar often used as sinks for degraded waste products5. It is generally possible to solve this issue by allocating the commons into private ownership, thus creating incentives to preserve and get along them. However, this solution is not viable for the atmosphere because it is impossible to enclose, thus difficult to divide between states. As with any other resource that wants ownership, the atmosphere becomes sheath to the tragedy of the commons, but without the simple solution of private ownership. Therefore, it is difficult to negotiate an agreement over emission limits because states gain juicyer individual benefit than individual costs from increasing production, as the total cost of pollution is shared6. However, with the spread of globalization, it is feasible that an increased awareness of a shared global space pot increase states self-interest in protecting the environment.However, globalisation can in some ways be considered to be a reason for the limited advantage in curbing global warming. The relationship between the process of globalisation and the problem of environmental degradation is fairly complex, as though globalisation whitethorn raise the importance of protecting the commons, it m ay actually heighten the problem. worldwideisation has lead to the spread of industry around the world, resulting in rising levels of production and consumption, which in turn leads to increased emissions7. The demand for open borders and free trade makes it to a greater extent difficult for governments to enforce environmental regulations as firms are more able to shelve them by moving to areas in which regulations do not exist or are lower8. The more difficult or complicated the regulation process is, the more unlikely governments are to succeed in moody emissions. This has led to the argument that inter subject area trade is incompatible with environmental protection, as increased trade and globalisation lead to hike up industrialisation, production and consumption, thus increasing global emissions, limiting governments ability to stop global warming. Governments may also have failed in successfully accounting for externalities of pollution (environmental and social damage) as pollution taxes and regulations have not been at a socially efficient level, thus leading to inefficiently high emissions9. However, many people argue that globalisation actually increases the efficiency of production, as long as markets take into account these externalities10. The spread of wealth and knowledge to naked regions brought about by globalisation can also be argued to improve local environments due the facilitation of global awareness.Therefore, possibly a more viable history for the failure of governments in regulating global warming emerges from the potential economical costs of reducing production and consumption. It may not be in the national interests of states to reduce emissions, as this would involve limiting production by regulating emissions. Furthermore, reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases would involve regulation of energy, transport, agriculture, and industry, which are fundamental to modern economies11. Therefore, governments are reluctant to ban greenhouse gas emissions or to call for severe cuts as this could potentially have devastating effects on their economies, thus lowering living standards. Moreover, the cost of developing new technology and renewable energies to replace current production methods is vast, even though there are potential economic benefits from investing in alternative energy technologies12. Governments may therefore forego sustainability at the expense of economic growth. However, probably the most important reason why governments have not succeeded in significantly reducing global warming is the difficulty in achieving global cooperation on the issue. Although the tragedy of the commons, globalisation and economic effects play a large role in the past failure in the reduction of global warming, most of these problems ultimately stem down to the lack of cooperation between states in dealing with the issue. Global warming is an issue that transcends national boundaries, involves irreversible damag e to the environment, and affects all states, thus requiring transnational cooperation13. Many attempts have been made at reaching cooperation in the past, through numerous summits and meetings, and the creation of treaties and global institutions, such as the Kyoto Protocol and the United Nations Environment Program14. These attempts have had limited success in bringing the issue of global warming onto the global agenda. For example, the issue of governing global commons has been approached by creating a framework of mutually satisfactory standards of behaviour, and the issue of economic costs for states has been tackled by setting global emission targets (Kyoto Protocol for example). However, regardless of these attempts, it has been impossible to forge global cooperation for several reasons. Firstly, international environmental meetings often serve many other political objectives, thus making it less likely that states will reach an understanding15. In conjunction, states may ha ve strange national interests over political issues, the economy, trade policies, as well as the environment, making it difficult to forge a deal that adheres to each states needs. In addition, since international cooperation involves transboundary regulation, some have made claims that environmental action and new forms of global governance may be a threat to state sovereignty, thus encourage complicating cooperation16. Furthermore, it is important to consider the role of hegemons, especially the United States, in forging international cooperation. In recent years, the US has rejected many global efforts in environmental policymaking, withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol, challenging the need for new treaties and questioning the precautionary principle in environmental protection17. If the US fails to act on global warming by accepting emission limits or by taking environmental leadership, other nations will find it difficult to do so while still stay economically competitive. Th erefore, there are many reasons explaining why governments have failed to do so little about global warming, largely arising from the difficulty in global environmental cooperation. In my opinion, although governments around the world have failed to fully prevent the negative effects of global warming, there have been many achievements that have brought the world closer to successfully understanding how to do so. In many cases, environmental problems can be managed through cooperation in global institutions and treaties18. Despite USAs failure to confirm Kyoto, there is significant proof that emissions targets do work in slowing down global warming19. Furthermore, solutions such as tradable permits and carbon taxes have gone a long way in finding a market based solution to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions20. International action could be further encouraged by the acknowledgement of global warming as a national security risk, as environmental degradation leads to both interna l and external conflicts by potentially deepening poverty cycles and leading to mass migration away from degraded areas21. By accentuating the security risks associated with global warming, governments may be more given over to act, as security issues are crucial to governing a state.Even though global warming is acknowledged as a man-made disaster, governments have failed to fully stop its effects. This can be attributed to the difficulty in governing the global commons, the spread of globalisation and the potential effects on the economy of edged emissions, as well as the difficulty in reaching global cooperation in environmental policy. Governments still face the task of finding a socially optimal level of regulation, the difficulty of ensuring emission standards are met once a treaty has been signed22, as well as managing the connections between climate change, security, and globalisation. However, if powerful nations take the lead in promoting environmental norms, and if stat es adopt a precautionary principle on global warming, international cooperation can potentially succeed in providing governance regimes for important global commons.Word count 1500BibliographyBaylis, J. Smith, S. and Owens, P. (eds), The Globalization of World politics An Introduction to International Relations, 4th Edition (Oxford Oxford University Press).Steans, J. and Pettiford, L. (2005), International Relations Perspectives and Themes, 2nd Edition, (Harlow Pearson Education).Krugman, P. Wells, R. Graddy, K. (2008), economic science European Edition, (Worth Publishers).Cline, W. (1992), The Economics of Global warm, (Institute for International Economics).Victor, D. (2001), The Collapse of the Kyoto Protocol and the Struggle to slow Global thawing, (Princeton University Press).Nordhaus, W. Boyer, J. (2000) Warming the World Economic Models of Global Warming, (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).Hardin, G. (1998), Extensions of the tragedy of the Commons, Science New Seri es, 5634(280) 682-683Barnett, J. (2003), Security and Climate Change, Global environmental Change, 13(1) 7-17Falkner, R. (2005), American Hegemony and the Global Environment, International Studies Review, 7(4) 585-599Hersch, J. Viscusi, K. (2006), Allocating Responsibility for Failure of Global Warming Policies, Responses to Global Warming The Law, Economics, and Science of Climate Change, 155(20) 1657-1694Barrett, S. (1990), The Problem of Global Environmental Protection, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 6(1) 68-79Robert, K. Basile, G. Kuehr, R. (2002) Strategic Sustainable Development Selection, jut and Synergies of Applied Tools, Journal of Cleaner Production, 10(3) 197-214Houghton, J. (2005) Global Warming, Reports on the Progress of Physics, 68(1) 1343-1403Flohn, H. (1980), affirmable Climatic Consequences of a Man-made Global Warming United Nations Environment Programme, at http//www.iiasa.ac.at/Publications/Documents/RR-80-030.pdf1 Houghton, J. (2005) Global Warming, Repo rts on the Progress of Physics, 68(1) p.13432 Flohn, H. (1980), Possible Climatic Consequences of a Man-made Global Warming United Nations Environment Programme, at http//www.iiasa.ac.at/Publications/Documents/RR-80-030.pdf, (Date Accessed 20/02/2010)3 Hardin, G. (1998), Extensions of the Tragedy of the Commons, Science New Series, 5634(280) p. 6824 Barrett, S. (1990), The Problem of Global Environmental Protection, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 6(1) p.685 Baylis, J. Smith, S. and Owens, P. (eds), The Globalization of World Politics An Introduction to International Relations, 4th Edition (Oxford Oxford University Press) p.3586 Hardin, G. (1998), Extensions of the Tragedy of the Commons, Science New Series, 5634(280) p. 6837 Baylis, J. Smith, S. and Owens, P. (eds), The Globalization of World Politics An Introduction to International Relations, 4th Edition (Oxford Oxford University Press) p.3528 Nordhaus, W. Boyer, J. (2000) Warming the World Economic Models of Global Warming, (M assachusetts Institute of Technology) p.39 Hersch, J. Viscusi, K. (2006), Allocating Responsibility for Failure of Global Warming Policies, Responses to Global Warming The Law, Economics, and Science of Climate Change, 155(20) p.165910 Krugman, P. Wells, R. Graddy, K. (2008), Economics European Edition, (Worth Publishers) p.48311 Baylis, J. Smith, S. and Owens, P. (eds), The Globalization of World Politics An Introduction to International Relations, 4th Edition (Oxford Oxford University Press) p.36212 Robert, K. Basile, G. Kuehr, R. (2002) Strategic Sustainable Development Selection, Design and Synergies of Applied Tools, Journal of Cleaner Production, 10(3) p.20213 Cline, W. (1992), The Economics of Global Warming, (Institute for International Economics) p.914 Baylis, J. Smith, S. and Owens, P. (eds), The Globalization of World Politics An Introduction to International Relations, 4th Edition (Oxford Oxford University Press) p.35615 Houghton, J. (2005) Global Warming, Reports on th e Progress of Physics, 68(1) p.139116 Steans, J. and Pettiford, L. (2005), International Relations Perspectives and Themes, 2nd Edition, (Harlow Pearson Education) p.21417 Falkner, R. (2005), American Hegemony and the Global Environment, International Studies Review, 7(4) p.58518 Steans, J. and Pettiford, L. (2005), International Relations Perspectives and Themes, 2nd Edition, (Harlow Pearson Education) p.20619 Hersch, J. Viscusi, K. (2006), Allocating Responsibility for Failure of Global Warming Policies, Responses to Global Warming The Law, Economics, and Science of Climate Change, 155(20) p.166220 Krugman, P. Wells, R. Graddy, K. (2008), Economics European Edition, (Worth Publishers) p.48121 Barnett, J. (2003), Security and Climate Change, Global Environmental Change, 13(1) p.1022 Victor, D. (2001), The Collapse of the Kyoto Protocol and the Struggle to slow Global Warming, (Princeton University Press) p.55

The Importance Of Performance Assessment Education Essay

The Importance Of Performance Assessment Education Essay entryAssessment had undergone a major shift from that as a measure of students execution of instrument in pencil and paper test to assessing a broader argona that does not only include students knowledge and understanding but excessively essential skills. These skills for instance, communication, hassle solving, investigation and even thinking skills are few of the think abilities that are required for teachers to instil in their teaching. These are also one of the aims of the Ministry of Education in the new education system, SPN 21.In Brunei itself, the secondary schools take in begun to implement much(prenominal) job in their curriculum. Brunei Common Assessment Task or better known as BCAT has started in the year 2011. Students are assessed base on their performance on the task by using rubric which comprised of three assessed dimensions. The first dimension is knowledge and understanding while the second dimension includes thinking skill, problem solving and investigation skill and the last one is communication skill.The Importance of Performance AssessmentPerformance assessment, also known as alternative or authentic assessment, is a form of testing that requires students to perform a task rather than select an answer from a ready-made list. It is designed to provide a more complete picture of student achievement in a expoundicular area (Sweet, 1993). In other words, students are assessed through observing their performances and examining the products they have produced throughout the lesson.The purpose of performance assessment is to evaluate the actual process of doing an object of learning. Students are expected to be able to apply knowledge learnt in class to solve problems in the task. Apart from that, students may need to phthisis their thinking skill in order to complete the task. Teachers as evaluators will be able to judge the quality of their students abilities, witness their st udents progress and facilitate them to a higher level of conceptual and procedural knowledge (Slater, n.d.) during which the task is conducted.Tasks that are important may enhance students interest towards mathematics learning as they could make sense of what they learnt while performing (Ng, Koh, Kelly Yue, 2009). With hike up understanding on the tasks, students will be able to apply numerical concepts learnt in real life context (Goldman Hasselbring, 1997 Lim, Tan Wei Lin, 2011). Not only that by giving performance assessment tasks students are well guided on their level of achievement as they get immediate feedback based from the rubric assessed by their teachers. Self and peer assessment are also encouraged in order to acknowledge their level of competencies in that particular topic.The importance of performance task does not focus on the students only. Teachers also benefit from implementing such tasks in their teaching. Different topics could be integrated into one perfo rmance task, thus teachers need not to give up certain topics or favourite activities in their schoolroom and time would be managed efficiently. This considerate of integration along with traditional testing would give a comprehensive picture of students performance. The said(prenominal) was suggested by Hibbard, Wagenen, Lewbebel et al. (1996) whereby traditional testing should be simultaneously working with the performance task in order to produce a better way to cant over the curriculum (Figure 1).http//www.ascd.org/ASCD/images/publications/books/hibbard1996_fig1.gifFigure 1. Students literacy.Students Difficulty in Learning and Understanding on FractionsThe topic being assessed was on fractions in real life. Fraction is considered one of the nearly difficult topics encountered by students. Many studies had reported of its difficulties where students struggled in understanding the concept on fractions. Suffolk and Clements (2003) studied students in Form 1 and Form 2 from 27 secondary schools in Brunei had nominate out that many students were experiencing serious difficulties with elementary fractions tasks.Another study by Zurina (2003) involving Form 4 (N-Level) students discovered that students had very short(p) knowledge and understanding of fractions and decimals. The major contributing factors were that teacher spent large amount of time on preparing students for high-stake examination, therefore the traditional drill and practice method acting was mostly employed by teachers. She further commented that teaching and assessment methods were not generating towards the desired quality of the students.Description of the TaskThe task comprised of six questions with the first iv related to each other. The next two questions are the cover problems which are instead similar to the first four (refer to Appendix A). Question 1 until 4 assesses the students knowledge and understanding of their concept on fractions. These include the interpretation of f raction and understanding the key word which is remaining and remainder. Meanwhile Question 5 and 6 are the employment of operation in fraction to solve problems, through which the thinking skills, problem solving and investigation, and communication skills are assessed (refer to Appendix B for rubrics). for each one dimension were given a make water from 1 to 5 depending on the different criteria as stated in Appendix B. Lesson plan for carrying out the task was designed prior the class (refer to Appendix C).Class ObservationThe task was conducted on the 27th September 2012 in an all girls school in Brunei Darussalam. It was intended for Year 7 students and the topic being assessed was on Fraction in Real Life. There were 22 students involved in this study with an average mathematical ability. The duration of the study followed the mathematics period which was 50 minutes.The session started with a brief review on the topic specifically on the four operations of fractions. After 5 minutes, the task sheets were distributed to the students including the rubrics. Students were given an explanation of what they should do for the task and what was expected according to the rubric. Students were asked to work together in a pair and the use of calculators was allowed. Teachers involved were making rounds while giving help when necessary to the students throughout the lesson.During the lesson, most of the students were working on their task with few of the students did not communicate with their partners. It could be observed that few students were struggling in understanding the first question. These students managed to shade the boxes with their colour pencils. However, they did not label their shadings as they were instructed in the question.Furthermore, students were found having hassle to go away to the next question. Since the second question was asking the students to shade three-eighths of the remainder, few students had shaded three boxes on their diagra m. More problems arose as they moved on to the next question where students were found to shade ten boxes rather than four, which was the actual answer. As for the fourth question, since they got it wrong from the second and the third question, their final solution was also incorrect.Questions 5 and 6 were the performance problems. Students need to understand the problems and think before they could proceed. The first part of the question was an easy and straight forward question which a lot of the students managed to answer. Whereas the second part of Question 5 was difficult for students to solve even though it was a similar problem to those in Questions 1 to 4. Question 6 was the least answered by the students during the lesson.Results and DiscussionsTable 1Mean Scores for Each DimensionsKnowledge and UnderstandingThinking Skills, Problem Solving and InvestigationsCommunication Skills3.591.771.68From the analysis of the rubrics, it was found that the mean score for each dimensio n were as shown in Table 1 above. Based from the results, most students were able to show correct fraction diagrams in Question 1, 2 and 3. This showed that the students had basic knowledge on fractions but little on understanding the problem. Meanwhile, students only managed to apply a strategy and obtain incomplete solutions to both application problems which indicated that they were unable to reach the standard intended for their level. This further affected their communication skills by which they were unable to illustrate and reason their solutions.From the observations, teachers found out that there was a slight improvement throughout the lesson for knowledge and understanding dimension only. This was because the students spent more time trying out Questions 2 and 3 compared to the rest of the questions, a reason why Question 6 was the least answered. This was also the reason why the teachers involved were unable to rate the students on the other two dimensions during the less on conducted..Analysing at each question, all the students had no problem with attempting Question 1. However, students were having difficulty in finding the right number of squares to be shaded in Question 2 and 3. This was generally due to the misunderstanding of the word remaining in the question. Students were using the original number of squares to find the number of squares to be shaded in Questions 2 and 3. This led to their unfitness to find the correct response for Question 4.With regards to Questions 5 and 6, students were also having similar problem of understanding the word remaining and remainder as posted in the previous questions. This brought an impact towards the overall performance of the students for these two application questions. Few tried the questions but were unsuccessful in getting the correct answers, others left it unattempted. materialisation and ConclusionFrom the above discussion, it could be concluded that overall the lesson ran smoothly and only the first objective was achieved as indicated from the mean scores of the rubric. Students were found to be quite engaged in the activity. Students thinking could be observed through their working and when they asked questions clarifying their difficulties.However less communication with their partner could be observed during the lesson. unhopeful students interaction resulted in different scores achieved by few groups. Apart from that, students were seen more focused on finishing the first task rather than the application problems. Perhaps, this is because the first activity targeted on the basic understanding on fractions in real life and students assumed that the questions were easy since diagrams were provided. Feedback from the students was asked towards the end of the lesson where commonly they claimed that the tasks were overly difficult. This kind of response had shown that the students who participated in this task were not exposed to this kind of assessment approach.It was a lso found from the above analysis that there were few limitations on the task. Firstly, difficulty in rating students scores was encountered. This is because few of them had left their task unanswered and the rubric designed had specified one mark for no attempt in the third dimension, the communication skill. This had shown that the rubric itself was lacking of fairness. This should be modified in the future if one would implement the task in their class. Secondly, a proper classroom observation checklist which assesses other attributes apart from what the rubrics had specified should have been developed. At least, from this checklist, a wider perspective such as students interaction with their peers and also with the teachers involved could be further evaluated. Finally, as discussed before, the tasks only concentrate on a key word remaining which is a confusing concept to the students. This can be modified by adding different concept rather than focusing on just one.

Body Modification :: Body Piercings Essays

Body Modification A Rising SensationA heavily tattooed woman pinched my nose and picked up a elephantine needle with her other hand. Whoa...hold on, I muttered. Whats the matter? You fuck off got to be kidding me. You bay windowt pierce me with that Uh...why not? Its waaaay too big You cant just take a chopstick and jab a hole into my face with it... Listen...do you want this piercing or not? I have a whole line of people waiting outside to be in this chair. I stared in horror at the fearsome needle taunting me to challenge its glinting tip. I closed my eyes, prayed with every cell in my body for the pain to be minimal, and grimaced as she expertly twirled the needle between her fingers and then slid it finished my flesh in one fluid motion. When I took a peek, I gaped cross-eyed at the foreign object jutting out of my nose and smiled. I dont remember what state of mind I was in when I walked into the parlor, but I left victorious Throughout history, people have decorated and mo dified the appearance of their bodies in many different ways. Nostril piercings are thought to have been adopted into the noble castes in the Middle atomic number 99 almost 4000 years ago. Nowadays, nostril piercings have been adopted by Christina Aguilera. In South America, Aztec and Mayan priests pierced their tongues as part of a ritual to communicate with their gods. In several African tribes, the beauty of women was determined by the size of plates that were fitted into their upper lips. In ancient civilizations of Egypt, a perfect belly button could elevate someones social standing. At that time, only Pharaohs and royal families could pierce their navels. Anyone else was promptly executed. A perfect belly button, however, could be a peasants ticket to a better life. The ancient Romans pierced their nipples (ouch) to show their strength and endurance. It is also theorized that their nipple jewelry held their cloaks in place To this day, piercings have continued to stupefy hu man curiosity and fascination. The world record for the highest number of body piercings is one of the most volatile since it is constantly adjusting as each prickled being attempts to outdo the previous(prenominal) one. In 2002, Nathan Robitaille, 23, had 420 needles stuck into his arms, thus breaking the previous world record of 301 piercings.

The effect of the use of video texts on ESL listening test-taker perfor

Elvis Wagner investigated the aim of picture texts in rendering the listening of ESL students within the experiment exhibited in his article, The effect of the use of video texts on ESL listening test-taker exploit. While the article itself was based heavily around the experiment conducted to test the effectiveness of video texts in testing listening, Wagner posed very interesting questions which he hoped his findings would portray. Wagners first question was the most interesting and asked, 1. To what extent does the use of video texts on an ESL listening test affect test-taker performance on that test? Do those test-takers in the video condition score higher or lower than the test-takers in the audio-only condition? (498) this question addresses the usefulness of testing listening with video texts while comparing its effectiveness to the control of audio-only. Studying the effects of video texts in listening test taking situations could help English language learners to bre ak out comprehend their test and ultimately improve their English skills, depending on the final data analysis. To better understand the constructs behind Wagners study, it becomes necessary to investigate the terra firma in studies used to assess the use of video texts in listening testing. Wagner provides many conflicting studies and data in the background section to show that unmatchable way of presenting the testing has not been proven better over the other. By sharing that Kellermans (1992) observation that The use of video texts allows listeners to view kinesic behavior of speakers (494) Wagner not only provides one side of the listening in testing argument, but also aids his readers in establishing why his experiment was necessary. A view tha... ...texts in testing listening for English language learners, but further study is required before test formats are changed. Wagner makes sure to include that there are different forms of listening that we are trying to teach E nglish language learners and the ways we test them should branch from those goals. For example, if we are trying to teach students how to listen to a radio broadcast, providing a video to teach that skill would not be as beneficial as an audio-only test, the inverse is true for teaching face-to-face communication and listening. While Wagners study showed that the use of video texts on a test of L2 listening ability led to increased group test performance (509), this study only focused on group results instead of individual. There is so much more that can be done to investigate the use of video texts, Wagner is just scratching the surface.