Author: Andre Coleman

E-Learning Students Education

Abstract: With the enormous spreading of e-learning over the last 15 years, quality of e-learning has been often criticized and tied up to poor provision. It has become important for higher education institutions to show the ability to provide high quality programmes. A variety of perspectives on what should be considered when evaluating the quality of e-learning. Some studies have addressed this topic from a more comprehensively view while other have looked at single perspective. This study aims at exploring this subject to develop a framework of critical factors necessary for the evaluation of quality in e-learning system, and to explore the relevancy and importance of the E-learning in Saudi Arabia. Accordingly, the literature of this topic was reviewed thoroughly to identify the factors that constitute the evaluation framework and 12 factors have been addressed. The empirical research was lying on a methodological quantitative approach where data was collected from learners in Saudi Arabia based from their experience in E-learning.

Introduction

Nowadays, higher education is experiencing big challenges driven by many emerging trends, among which is the introduction of means of online learning. Accordingly, many universities all over the world are taking different moves to cope with the new requirements; some universities were established as purely online learning providers, other conventional universities launched new online programs, and some introduced online learning programmes to enhance some of their already existing programs.

E-Learning redefines the teaching/learning processes and the overall learning environment. It change the old university system to a new set of practices by introducing significant changes in the roles of its main key players; learners, faculty members and the institution as an entity (Mendenhall, 2001).

The change which e-learning brings to higher education accompanied by its vast spreading as an accepted learning delivery mode has been always questioned by its components who tie this type of learning to poor quality. Therefore, studying the different aspects of evaluating the quality of e-learning has been rising as an issue that worth researching and enhancing (Kistan, 2005; Wirth, 2005).

A big range of perspectives on what factors to address when evaluating the quality of e-learning has been developed. Nevertheless; most of those studies either addressed few factors to a single aspect or dimension (Ally, 2004) or addressed multiple aspects but without looking at the e-learning institution comprehensively (Cohen and Ellis, 2004).

In view of the lack of a holistic framework of factors to evaluate the quality of e-learning programs; this study aims hopefully at contributing to the body of knowledge in E-learning practice.

Research objective:

The main principle of this study is to evaluate the quality of e-learning through investigating the related critical factors that been identified by researchers and practitioners in this field. It also intends to study the importance of such framework in the e-learning practise in Saudi Arabia.

The study aims also at understanding how the key learners and faculty members differ in perceiving the importance of such factors on impacting the quality of an e-learning program?

Research Question:

The research intends to answer in broad perspective the following questions as well:

What are the factors which are affecting the quality of e-learning?

In this question the researcher are trying to address the quality factors which affecting the success of E-learning in Saudi Arabia based on 12 factors have been address from the literature.

How can we increase the e-learning practice in Saudi Arabia?

The second question are to know what is the best way to increase the number of E-learning practise in Saudi Arabia and what do the learner think based on their experience.

Dissertation structure:

This dissertation includes six chapters in addition to its introduction. Below is a brief description of each:

Chapter two; outlining the background information of the research to puts the reader into the perspective of this study. The chapter includes a discussion of the emerging trends in higher education that have pushed for the introduction of e-learning and discusses broadly the quality issue in this type of learning.
Chapter three; covers the literature review of the e-learning, i.e. critical factors for evaluating the quality of e-learning programs. The chapter starts with identifying the distinctions between e-learning and traditional education, discusses in details the definition of the “Quality” concept in higher education generally and in e-learning in specific.
Chapter four; Cover the research methodology such as the process of data collection and analysis which will be used.
Chapter Five; we will be describing and analysing the data and presents the data gathered. Results of the analysis are then discussed.
Chapter six; this chapter summarizes the study, lay out the conclusion and ends up with recommendations for future research.
Bibliography
Research Methodology:

In this study the researcher are going to collect his data by quantitative method where a questionnaire will be designed based on the factors which have been discovered from the literature review and then will be sent to random group in Saudi Arabia. The Data later on will be analysis to show the result and the findings.

Saudi Arabia Background:

Saudi Arabia which is the birth place of Islam and home to Islam’s two holiest places in Mecca and Medina is located in the Middle East bordering the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea. The king’s official title is the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. The modern Saudi State was founded in 1932. It is a large Middle Eastern nation that ranks as one of the world’s leading producers of petroleum, and exports more oil than any other nation. The government is monarchy type and the monarch is both the chief of state and head of government and administratively it is divided into 13 provinces and the constitution is governed according to Islamic Law. The country’s legal system is based on Sharia law and several secular codes have been introduced. Commercial disputes are handled by special committee.

Saudi Arabia has an oil based economy with strong government controls over major economic activities. It possesses more than 20% of the world’s proven petroleum reserves. It not only ranks as the largest exporter of petroleum, but also plays a leading role in OPEC. The petroleum sector accounts for roughly 75% of budget revenues, 45% of GDP, and 90% of export earnings. It is believed that about 40% of GDP comes from the private sector and roughly 5.5 million foreign employees play an important role in the Saudi economy, particularly in the oil and service sectors.

The researcher have carried this research in Saudi of same reason which we are going to describe them in details as

The access: as the research is a Saudi nationality and have good access to the people in Saudi Arabia where he can collect more information and find a good respond rate than carrying a research in any other place.
The Language: The research are multi language as he can speak Arabic Mother tongue and English so he will not face any problem to collect the data
The Information: The researcher understating the situation in Saudi Arabia so he can do good research and will not spend too much time to understand the situation and cultural factors.
The Organisation of the Education System in KSA

The education system in Saudi Arabia has five divisions. They are: kindergarten for children from three to six years old, elementary (6-11), intermediate (12-14), secondary level (15-18), and university level (typically 19-24, depending on the subjects studied, and the form of higher education). The secondary stage is the final phase of general education in the Kingdom. It is a three-year period, following on from the intermediate stage. Students are admitted to this stage if they have obtained the intermediate stage certificate. Normally students follow secondary stage education between the ages of 16 and 18 years. This stage is considered the most important period in the general education ladder because students who successfully complete this stage are eligible to join any higher education institution.

The administration of the education system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is highly centralised. All educational policies are subject to government control and supervision by the Supreme Council of Education. Textbooks and teaching tools are uniform throughout the Kingdom. The four principal authorities responsible for education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are: the Ministry of Education; the General Presidency for Girls’ Education; the Ministry of Higher Education; and the General Organisation of Technical Education and Vocational Training.

Conclusion

In this chapter we have gave a sample overview about the research and what are the reason to carry this research as there are a lack in understand the practice of E-learning program in Saudi Arabia and the research are trying to develop a good understanding to this n the information of other study have carried in similar field ay of the Success factors of the quality for E-learning in Saudi Arabia. Also in this chapter we have describe the dissertation structure and the research question which are going to measure what are the main factors for the success of learning Quality. Finally the Saudi Background have been analyse to give the reader the information to understand where the study have carried on and why.

Chapter Two
Introduction:

The main objective of this chapter is to put forward the point of view of this study by laying out its background information. The chapter starts with presenting the emerging trends in higher education that have lead to the introduction of e-learning. It then continues by explaining the quality issue associated with this type of learning. The chapter also includes an overview of the background information about the e-learning in Saudi Arabia.

Education An overview:

According to a recent publication by the UNESCO, the education sector in general comprised of all of it’s constitutes including the higher education is experiencing new trends that exert on it new pressures and challenges (Hernes, 2003).

Those trends are either classified under demography such as the continuing grow and increase of population, particularly young populations, migration between countries, increase of life expectancy, or are due to globalization where nations in general and learners in particular flow across borders without limits, allowing learners to have easy access to the best universities in the developed countries. Finally and perhaps the most important trend, is the knowledge growth accompanied by advanced information and communication technologies which have changed forever the way information is obtained, stored, used and displayed.

Despite the divide between one country to another, or within the same country, more knowledge development opportunities have been created. Information technologies offer the possibility of modularization and customization of education through the use and re-use of learning objects focusing on learners, possibility of engaging learners more than ever and therefore changing the role of the faculty from a teacher to a facilitator.

In response to the challenges described above, the growth of e-learning programme with its different modes in higher education is apparent and best reflected by the increasing number of e-colleges or e-universities, or the increasing number of higher education institutions that introduced e-learning programs and definitely by the growth of enrolment rate among learners.

A study of e-learning in the United States in 2005, suggested that e-learning is penetrating the higher education institutions both in size and breadth and that e-learning is part of the mainstream of higher education. Figures of the study showed that sixty-five percent of schools offering graduate face-to-face courses also offer graduate courses online. Sixty-three percent of schools offering undergraduate face-to-face courses also offer undergraduate courses online. Among all schools offering face-to-face Master’s degree programs, 44% also offer Master’s programs online. Among all schools offering face-to-face Business degree programs, 43% also offer online Business programs. The same study showed an increase of around 20% of learners’ enrolment rate compared to the previous year (Allen and Seaman 2005).

For different reasons, those statistics do not seem to be applicable to other countries. The USA is certainly the world’s largest provider of e-learning; however the market for e-learning and lifelong learning is also growing in Europe. Moreover, The Arab world, which represents 5 per cent of the world’s overall population, has entered the 21st century with a striking statistics which shows that it has only 0.5 per cent of the worlds Internet users, which obviously impacts number of its e-learning initiatives and enrolled learners in such type of learning systems (UNDP, 2002).

Using Computers in Learning:

These days, computers have become important educational tool kit. Many educational organizations and training centres rely on it to deliver information and learning knowledge. However, using computers in education has a long history and it has deep-rooted in the field. The idea of using computers in training first appeared during World War 2, in that the US military trained farmers to use weapons and other equipment via this systematic approach (Horton, 2000).

The first real use of the computer in educational organizations was seen in the 1960s, when the University of Illinois together with the Data Corporation, developed the PLATO system. PLATO is a system which enabled the learning and understanding of complex subjects. Apple’s Macintosh and Microsoft Windows operating system have since provided a standard platform on which programmers can develop training programs (Horton, 2000)

Definition of E-learning:

E-Learning refers to the employment of information and communication technologies to support the development and delivery of learning in academic and professional development institutions. E-Learning is used widely with other terms such as online learning, technology-mediated learning, web-based learning, computer-based learning, etc.

several definitions of e-learning has been developed reflecting the diversity in its application, used tools and associated technologies, whatever definition was used, the meaning of e-learning always contains two fundamental terms; Learning and Technology. In a way or another, all definitions of e-learning indicate the learning that takes place with the support of multimedia objects, the internet and technological applications as a delivery mode. One of the highly used definitions of e-learning as:

“Education via the Internet, network or standalone computer; it refers to using electronic applications and processes to learn, where communication device have been used and content is delivered via the Internet, intranet/extranet, audio or video, TV and CD-ROM, DVD etc as appropriate” (LTSN Generic Centre, 2004).

A latest definition that uses the terminology of E-learning higher education has been defined by Ally (2004) as:

“The access of the Internet to use learning material; to interact with the content, instructor, and other learners; and to obtain support during the learning process, in order to obtain knowledge, to construct personal meaning, and to develop from the learning experience”.

According to Horton (2000) “E-learning is defined as instruction delivered on a computer by way of CD-ROM, DVD, Internet, or intranet with the following features:

Includes content related to the learning objective.
Uses instructional methods such as example and practice to help the learner.
Uses media feature such as words and pictures to deliver the content and methods.
Builds new skill and knowledge linked to individual learning goals or to improve organizational performance”
Feature of E-learning:

Eaton (2001) outlines that e-learning is characterized with the following features:

Computer-mediated classrooms: faculty members and learners communicate through the computer means making face to face interaction less frequent;
Separation in time between communications: communication between faculty members and learners can be also in asynchronous modes;
Availability of services online: learners are not only provided by online learning experience but also with online services such as advising, registration, and library services.
Distinction between e-Learning and Conventional Education:

To understand the quality of e-learning requires full understanding of how this type of learning differs from the conventional style of education and the changes it brings to higher education institutions. This section presents in a broad perspective the distinctions between e-learning and traditional education which shape higher education nowadays. Such distinctions will be taken into consideration when materializing a definition for quality in e-learning, and deciding what to be taken into consideration for evaluating the quality of this type of learning.

The following areas were highly repeated in the literature as key distinctions between e-learning and traditional education:

Educational Changes:

McLaughlin and Oliver (2000) believe however that the new technologies have positive impact on the learning environment where more choices for forms of learning are provided to faculty and learners. This includes the delivery and presentation of content in more flexible and variety of modes, the provision of interactivity, engagement, communication, feedback, communication and collaboration tools. Weller (2000) sees that those types of new choices will facilitate the quick use of courses for easier customization and individualization resulting in more satisfied learners.

Change in Faculty Roles:

With the growing amount of knowledge and information every day, and the availability of an huge amount of content over the internet, faculty members will not continue to be seen as the source of knowledge, instead, according to Cashion and Palmieri (2002), faculty members are expected to direct learners where to find the most relevant knowledge and provide them with tools that teach them how to learn.

Different Types of Learners:

Oblinger and Oblinger (2005) have referred to young learners of today as the “Net Generation” who grew with familiarity with technological products and facilities. Internet access, computer and electronic games have been a daily activity of learners’ lives. Learner’s todays have different expectations with respect to their learning styles; they prefer to experience things instead of reading or hearing about them, they expect immediate response to questions or actions, they appreciate interactivity and dialogue (Pashuk, 2005). Learners of today consider themselves as customers who demand to be served high quality services. They have consumers’ attitudes towards their academic program and any of its services (Wager, 2005). E-Learning institutions should be arranged to different types of learners, not only in their preferences and expectations but also in their level of variety.

Change in Administrators’ Role:

Administrators of an academic institution are usually referred to as staffs who are not participating in direct teaching or research work, their role is usually to assure that the institution’s systems are running properly. Administrators are responsible to create, maintain and improve an environment that helps learners and faculty achieve their academic goals. Administrators of an e-learning institution can be involved in selecting, orienting and preparing qualified faculty for courses, administer and manage the technological facilities at the institution, provide different types of faculty and learners support from the technical helpdesk, library services, financial aid, etc. Administrators can also be involved in the planning, quality assurance, performance management of an activity to help the institution serve its learners better (Williams, 2003).

Reliance on Infrastructure:

Although e-Learning is basically about learning rather than about technology; the technological infrastructure of e-learning programs is still the critical and primary component of the education systems, e-Learning is characterized by its high independence on the validity, and reliability of its infrastructure which have the role of facilitating and providing accessibility of the learning/teaching process and its support services between faculty members and learners (Pashuk, 2005).

Institutional Demands:

E-Learning institutions must set up their systems, policies and procedures to deal with issues like data security from both internal and external threats as well as copyrights from the learners, faculty and the institutional perspectives. Developing a high quality online course will not only require the intellectual contribution of faculty members, it rather involves other key team members from the same institution or from partnered institutions. Copyright issues are usually linked to revenue sharing models, especially when the course developers are contracted or granted any incentives (Mendenhall, 2001).

Advantages of using E-learning Methods.

As we know, traditional education requires effort, time and money that lead to some difficulties in achieving the goals of learning. On the other hand, e-learning contributes to the spread of knowledge among people around the globe by easy, fast and comfortable means that helps people to attain their personal learning objectives. As a result, several educational organisations have proceeded along the e-learning approach to facilitate and improve the process of learning. In this section, several advantages of using an e-learning approach will be discussed. The author has divided the advantages into two main categories, advantages for learners, and advantages for instructors.

Advantages for learners. According to Mayer (2003) he has conclude the common advantages that learners can gain from e-learning. The following list illustrates the main advantages for learners:

“Learners can get the best tuition available “

The extensive popularity of e-learning programme makes learning more flexible and gives freedom to learners to choose the best course which fit their needs.

“Training time”.

Web-based and media training are available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week which allows learners to study when they need it without any conditions or constraints. They do not need to wait for tuition sessions or specified time to attend.

“Learners set the schedule”.

Learners can study at their own time and they can take as many lessons as they need depending on their time and their schedule. For example, some of them may wish to study full-time while others want to study a few hours a week.

“Learners get access to the instructor”.

Communication with the tutor(s) through web based e-learning systems can be more helpful than the traditional classroom approach.

“Training adapts the learner’s style”

Many different learning styles can be integrated within an e-learning environment and the learner is able to adapt his or her style or series of styles which they prefer and in the way they feel is most efficient.

“Learners get quick feedback”

There is no need to wait while for the results and degree of the course, the results can be obtained immediately.

“Learners treated more equally”

A degree of anonymity is ensuring, therefore personal characteristics are not considered.

“Saves time and money for learners”

Hidden costs are eliminated in that here are no travelling fees, parking charge, etc. It is also efficient for time in that almost all the time is used on learning and no time is wasted on travelling.

“ Produces positive effects”

Learners are constantly improving their other skills, such as computer skills, internet technologies and how they apply the skills in their jobs.

Advantages for Instructors, According to Mayer (2003) the most common advantages for instructors can gain from e-learning are:

“Tutors can teach anywhere”

Tutors are able to teach the course from any location. All they need is connection to the internet.

“Tutors travel less”

Almost all the time is spent on publishing, planning, designing, producing the courses with no time wasted on travelling to attend the class.

“Course can be dynamic”

Tutors have the opportunity to deal with course stuff at any time and in any place such as Office, home etc.

“Tutors save time”

Time spent in preparing the course material such as handouts, having course paper printed are eliminated.

Conclusion

In this chapter we have cover a wide range on academic study to understand this subject as starting with the definition of E-learning and what do we mean by E-learning, followed by another important part which is what are the deferent between E-learning and the Conventional education. Also the researcher has included brief explanation about the history of E-Learning and the feature of E-stand its practise.

Moreover, We can see based on the literature there are many advantage of E-learning for the learner for example he can study from anywhere and at any time which are the flexibility of E-learning and also there are an advantage for the instructor as he also can teach from any place and with flexible time schedule.

Chapter three
Introduction:

In order to understand what constitutes quality of e-learning and the critical factors that should be addressed when evaluating this type of learning; an understanding of the distinctions between e-learning and traditional education need to be attained. The first section of this chapter is dedicated therefore to explore what changes has been brought to higher education by e-learning. This chapter includes a review for the literature to explore what has been recognized by the researchers and practitioners of this field as key factors that affect the quality of e-learning programs and institutions and therefore should be used to evaluate this type of learning.

A list of highly rated and most repeated factors was then generated and categorized to form the basis for a comprehensive framework intended for evaluating quality of e-learning programs which will be used later in the empirical research.

Quality in E-learning:

Defining quality in e-learning and what should be considered when evaluating the quality of e-learning has been developed during the last 15 years. Despite the important contribution of each of those studies, a complete framework for evaluating the quality of e-learning couldn’t be addressed. Developed frameworks either describe the quality of e-learning program with an importance on the classroom environment only or overlooked some important aspects such as the impact of the institute on the quality of E-learning programs (Cashion and Palmieri, 2002).

E-Learning has been set by governing or accrediting bodies which have developed quality standards, principles or frameworks. Such standards however, were developed to help institutions plan for their E-learning (Cashion and Palmieri, 2002) or as a self assessment tools, so they usually address in general perspective academic standards, quality standards, standards of competence, organizational standards and service standards (Harvey, 1999).

According to Vlasceanu et al (2004), the definition of quality in a higher education institution differs with the changes in:

The interests and needs of a range of types of stakeholders.
The institution’s inputs, processes, outputs, purpose, mission and set of goals.
The kind and attributes of the academic world.
The historical involvement and development of higher education

Revisiting the changes that e-learning brought to higher education especially to the role of its fundamental stakeholders; learners, educators and administrators, it perhaps becomes logical when we look for a definition of Quality as a concept, to consider these stakeholders first. For this reason, a growing literature in the field of e-learning tends to define Quality of e-learning programs as the degree to which principal stakeholders? needs and expectations are consistently satisfied, referring to the learners and educators (Kistan, 2005).

Success factors

Critical success factors (CSFs) are key areas of performance that are essential for the organisation to accomplish its mission (Rockart, 1979). Managers implicitly know and consider these key areas when they set goals and as they direct operational activities and tasks that are important to achieving goals. However, when these key areas of performance are made explicit, they provide a common point of reference for the entire organisation. Thus, any activity or initiative that the organisation undertakes must ensure consistently high performance in these key areas; otherwise, the organisation may not be able to achieve its goals and consequently may fail to accomplish its mission. The term “Critical Success Factor” has been adapted for many different uses. Familiarity with the term is often presented in the context of a project or an initiative. In this context, CSFs describe the underlying or guiding principles of an effort that must be regarded to ensure that it is successful.

The Clarity of course goals

Not surprisingly, there has been consensus in the literature that in order to assure the quality of the teaching/learning process; designing a course should start with explicit outcomes that identify the expectations from learners and faculty from the very beginning. Learning outcomes which usually drive the effectiveness assessment process of courses should be also challenging and linked directly to the institution overall goals and objectives. (Mayer et al 2000) faculty members have to adjust course content by selecting appropriate learning styles to achieve course goals and learners’ needs.

Inter

Teaching techniques and their effectiveness in developing ‘accelerated learning’ within UK schools and colleges

Table of Contents (Jump to)

1. Research Background

2. Literature Review

3. Aims & Objectives

4. Research Methodology & Analysis

References and Bibliography

1. Research Background

The author of this report was taught using the traditional methods of teaching throughout the student life. The author came to know about a technique known as brain gym through an acquaintance and became aware of such techniques. This encouraged the author at a later stage to develop an understanding of accelerated learning and to see if it was considered effective by practitioners. Consequently, the author decided to base the dissertation on this topic within the context of English primary schools and colleges. After initiating the research the author realised that there was so much more to the topic of accelerated learning, and that there were numerous techniques associated with it that claimed to improve student’s learning. Hence the idea was to base the work on finding out how popular these teaching techniques were in relation to others and whether traditional teachers considered them effective.

2. Literature Review

There is a huge amount of literature surrounding accelerated learning theory and different teaching techniques that claim to help develop student’s learning. In this section the author will make reference to a variety of techniques that are linked to accelerated learning theory but will discuss their perceived effectiveness in different situations while conducting the detailed literature review. While doing the complete literature review he author will also explore the current literature that describes the brain’s structure and how learning occurs, in order to help the reader’s understanding of how these various teaching technique help learning.

Student centered education allow student to develop their real abilities by not distorting learning: this philosophy does not support traditional teaching techniques. The idea was originally conceived by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1762. It was thought that we should not focus on what information to teach students (primarily student’s), but teach subjects and skills in accordance to what natural talents a student possesses. The student will then develop in to a life long learner as each of them develops through stages (Sutherland, 1988). This idea has been associated with current educational policy that encourages us to become life long learners. Learning is not just about academic knowledge but is an experience that should be positive if it is to be effective. The author will now cite some of the techniques that were identified during the preliminary literature review.

Brain gym is one such technique that is used to promote learning and is supposed to be effective when used with academic skills. Brain gym is used in educational kinesiology (Edu-k). There are three main types of activity that promote different processes: Crossing the midline – essential for writing and reading, Lengthening activities – helps in expression of stored memory, skills such as test taking, speech and writing, Energy exercises – helps to decrease stress and fatigue, increases the flow of energy around the body (Magidson, 2004, p.2). The ability to cross the midline refers to an individual being able to cross and use both hemispheres at once, where different types of information can be processed and moved from left to right and right to left. Some scientists suggest that this process is a key skill required for academic success (Dennison et al 1994). Brain gym activities have been created to help learners cross the midline in order to help improve co-ordination, breathing and stamina, enhance vision and hearing and improve spatial awareness (Cohen et al 2002). Skills that may improve include short-term memory and concentration (Drabben-Thiemann et al, 2001). There is some criticism of the technique because any form of physical activity seems to create a relaxed state (Adey et al, 2002).

Target setting has been used to help individuals learn more effectively by organising information in to sections in the form of a target to be achieved. It is supposed to help the learner make sense of information and feel as if the task can be achieved in small steps. The brain stores information, and then retrieves it when appropriate in the form of memory. The short-term or working memory has limited capacity, compared to our long-term memory that is much greater (Prashnig, 1998). Learning tends to be more effective when spread out over a period of time with numerous revisits (Long, 2000). Target setting should review work regularly and be connected with other work if it is to enhance long-term memory; this requires consistency and the allocation of time to ensure the technique is effective. Like a placebo, if success is created in learning it is likely to be recreated in a similar experience (Stockwell, 1992). Target setting is suggested to be difficult to use in practice because the system is time consuming to set up (Naughton et al, 2001).

VAK input technique uses different methods to present information and various activities to engage the student’s attention; depending on the way they prefer to process information. There are allegedly different types of learners: visual, auditory and kina-esthetic (Smith 1996). Neuro-lingusitic programming research has implied that in a class there are a certain percentage of learners who prefer one of the three types of input. Approximately 29% of learners prefer visual input methods, 34% auditory and 37% are kinaesthetic learners; teachers also subconsciously teach using their preferred method of input (IAL 2000).

The traditional assumption that learning is more effective in a quiet atmosphere has been challenged by research conducted in to the effects of music on learning. Research in New Zealand implied that 40% of high school students preferred noisy environments to silent ones (Prashnig, 1998). When this technique is used in lessons it appears to stimulate activity in both hemispheres (Schuster el al, 1986). Educators need to be trained on what type of music has different effects on the state created in learners, if this technique is to be used (Northumberland LEA, 2004).

Teachers tend to use a mixture of approaches depending on the situation in which they teach. Some are considered more effective than others, although each technique usually derives from a specific theory. There is an increasing amount of research being conducted on how we learn and what techniques may help. However one must remain cautious about how we apply these finding, because each one is dependent on the circumstances in which it was created.

3. Aims & Objectives

The primary aim of the research is to find out the different teaching techniques that are used and to determine if those associated with accelerated learning theory are popular, together with how effective they are in developing students learning. Additionally this dissertation will also provide with accurate, up-to-date, research-based information about possible future trends in accelerated learning techniques. And lastly, this research will try to provide possible suggestions and recommendations to be considered for the improvement of such techniques to develop ideas for further research in this context.

To summarize some of the questions that will be addressed through this research are as follows:

What teaching techniques are used to develop student’s learning?
The need for such techniques to be used?
Effectiveness and implications of such techniques?
What are the possible alternatives?
Student involvement in the use of such techniques?
4. Research Methodology & Analysis

A collection of methodologies will be used to carry out this research. Both primary and secondary data will be collected for this purpose. The secondary data will comprise of data from literature reviewed from books, journals, Internet and the annual reports of the institutions while the primary data will take the form of information/results collected from the case study and questionnaire. The researcher has chosen the Case study and Survey strategies for the research. Both of them are common and popular strategy in educational research.

“A case study is a detailed examination of one setting, or one single subject, or one single repository of documents, or one particular event [Bogdan and Biklen, 1982].” Case study approach is categorized as ‘Non-Participant’ qualitative research. Therefore, the first stage of research will comprise of short listing of the educational institutions where the case studies will be carried out. The first criteria will be selecting those institutions that employ accelerated learning techniques. Educational institutions with traditional setting will also be included in the case study for comparative analysis.

Survey research is one of the most widely used forms of research among the educational researchers. It involves researchers asking a large group of people questions about a particular topic. All surveys possess three basic characteristics: (1) the collection of information (2) from a sample (3) by asking a question. A survey can be carried out by conducting interviews with individuals or groups and use of questionnaires. In the second stage of the research the researcher will use a detailed questionnaire, testing quantitatively a much larger sample of teachers. Based on the initial literature review the author will prepare a preliminary questionnaire which be circulated to a small sample. Based on the results of the initial response the questionnaire will be refined and will be sent to a much larger sample.

Research analysis will be done based on the method proposed by Hycner (1985). According to him, the analysis requires the researcher to read the transcripts; identify themes; confirm the accuracy of the interpretation and produce a final summary. Thus the information will be analyzed accordingly and a brief summary will be prepared.

References

Adey, P. Robertson, A. Venville, G. (2002) ‘Effects of a cognitive acceleration programme on Year 1 pupils’ British Journal of Educational Psychology 72 (1) pp.1-25

Bogdan, R. and Biklen, S. (1982). Qualitative Research for education. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Brain Gym International (ONLINE www.braingym.org).

Burns, N., & Grove, S. K. (1997). The practice of nursing research. Conduct, critique and utilization. Philadelphia: W.B.Saunders.

Cannell, C. Fowler, F. J. Kalton, G. Oksenberg, E. Bischoping, K. (2004) ‘New quantitative techniques for presenting survey questions’ in Bulmer M (ed) Questionnaires Volume IV Eondon: SAGE Publications Etd.

Cohen, I. Goldsmith, M. (2002) Hands on how to use brain gym in the classroom Ventura: Edu-Kinesthetics Inc.

Dennison, D. Dennison, G. (1994) Brain gym teacher’s edition revised 2? ed. Califonia: Edu-Kinesthetics Inc.

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The effects of ESOL teaching on learners in relation to social integration, identity and social cohesion
Introduction

This paper will investigate the affect that current ESOL teaching practice can have in terms of impacting on a variety of diverse groups of learners. It is important to consider that ESOL provision is taught across a number of disciplines and exists in various capacities within colleges, community settings, in the workplace and even prison and detention centres. The types of learners undertaking ESL courses represent a rich mix of backgrounds and come with a number of incentives to learn English. For the benefit of focusing on an area that is potentially vast in its research, this dissertation will concentrate predominantly on the UK systems and the teaching of diverse communities that represent different ethnicity, cultural background and citizenship.

Breaking the Language Barriers published by the DfES in 2000 documents the findings of a report into ESOL provision in the UK and identifies a number of issues that needed addressing. The report categorizes ESOL students into four types of learner:

Settled communities
Refugees and asylum seekers
Migrant workers
Partners and spouses of students.

(DfES, 2000)

From these categories they determined that a great many ESOL students particularly refugees and asylum seekers experienced a range of problems including; financial, legal, social, physical and mental issues and clarified that they were marginalized, often excluded and living in poverty, subject to frequent discrimination and racism.

(Sourced from: http://www.niace.org.uk/Projects/esol-enquiry/documents/ESOL-Committee-Issues.doc, Date accessed, 21/11/08

What the report also highlighted was the variable levels of teaching ability, which has been attributed to the shortage of adequately trained teachers, the lack of use of the learners’ first language as a learning resource and the lack of support for students with special learning needs. (Sourced from: http://www.niace.org.uk/Projects/esol-enquiry/documents/ESOL-Committee-Issues.doc, Date accessed, 21/11/08

The way in which the link between social cohesion and teaching can be made is perhaps best summarised by the work of Dagenais et al in Intersections of Social Cohesion, Education, and Identity in Teachers, Discourses, and Practices. There paper examines the debate surrounding government policy on promoting social cohesion. It exemplifies programmes in Canada where local and national schools and teachers work with professional agencies to develop policy directives that are geared around building social cohesion practices within a bilingual and multicultural framework. Dagenais et al took this developmental work a stage further by undertaking teacher-researcher collaboration to determine how teachers utilize both their own cultural backgrounds as well as their student’s backgrounds in order to achieve an inclusive classroom setting. Teachers were seen to adopt learning techniques which were innovative in their ability to incite inclusion. Consequently the research project concluded that teachers have the ability to help inform policymakers, researchers and other learning practitioners about the link between ‘identity, language and education implicated in social cohesion projects’

(Dagenais et al, 2008)

The link between social cohesion and teaching is not a modern concept. Historically it has played a significant role from the mid nineteenth century to the present day. Jewish settlers arrived in Victorian London and were assisted by voluntary organisations and a small series of published self-help texts. The next wave of refugees came about from those fleeing persecution in the Spanish Civil War and to escape Nazi Europe. It was during this time between the 1930’s and the 1950’s that the Berlitz guide and the linguaphone emerged. Over the next couple of decades following the post-war immigration to the UK the government began to respond as to local education authorities and the birth of the official ESOL teacher came about during the 1960’s. (Sourced from: http://www.niace.org.uk/publications/C/CriticalHistory.asp, Date accessed, 22/11/08) Ten years later and the Russell Report was published. The Russell Report of 1973 was to ‘prove a milestone in adult learning in the UK’. With Russell emphasising the special needs of adults and the necessity to provide for them by developing a variety of courses at different levels.

(Sourced from: http://www.niace.org.uk/Publications/R/Russell.asp, Date accessed, 22/11/08). This was an important decade again in terms of refugees entering the UK from Latin America, Uganda, Cambodia and Vietnam. The 1980’s witnessed the abolition of the Industrial Language Training and adult and community education was experiencing one of its most vulnerable periods. But at the same time other community languages were being recognized.

During the 1990’s there was a significant move towards recognizing ESOL which was positioned within the newly established Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit within the central government education department. (Sourced from: http://www.niace.org.uk/publications/C/CriticalHistory.asp, Date accessed, 22/11/08) Today this exists as The Skills for Life Strategy Unit which is based in the Department for Innovation, Universitiesand Skills and has been operational under its new identity sinceNovember 2000.

The Unit works in tangent with other partner organisations including the Prison Service, Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and the Learning and Skills Development Agency in addition to voluntary and civil service. Its main objective is to take forward the Government’s Skills for Life agenda. In short it encourages continual improvement with literacy, languageand numeracy skills both at a national and local level. The Skills for Life Strategy Unit is categorized thus:

Access and Inclusion
ESOL Policy
Learner Achievement
Learner Engagement and Communications
Level 2 and Level 2 PSAs
Migration Strategy
Quality and Teacher Education
Workplace Engagement and Public Sector

(Sourced from: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/readwriteplus/who_we_are, Date accessed, 22/11/08)

It is from the perspective of the twentieth century that this paper will scrutinize the historical relationship between ESOL provision and the wider community including its modern day responsibility to contribute to the framework of social cohesion and inclusivity.

Chapter one will concentrate on the existing evidence to suggest that there is a definite need to enhance current learning experiences for those people in society who may be at risk of exclusion or requiring greater understanding of their social, political and cultural background where the teaching of the English language is concerned. Recent research and investigative projects working with minority groups and diverse learners will be explored for consideration in the broader argument to suggest legitimizing these theories.

Chapter two will then examine what is currently being achieved in relation to forward thinking and strategic change taking into consideration the moves by government and learning bodies to begin the process of applying new curriculum and teaching developments that respond to the needs of a wider community of learners.

Chapter One: Identifying problems and issues amongst learners and tutors

The purpose of this chapter will be to outline an indication of the types of problems that exist for a variety of people in terms of how they are taught ESOL, to identify the characteristics and needs of the learners by way of case studies and examples. Consequently the teaching methods, ESOL curriculum and identified issues in these areas will be analysed.

The perceptions of English Language teaching vary greatly between different societies in accordance with their demographic, political situation and the sanctioned education systems of the country. For example in the United States second language tuition is considered the medium through which non-English speaking children are fast-tracked into English in the shortest amount of time, with little scope for quality of provision. (Julios, 2008)

To give another example, Pacific communities born into New Zealand life are currently facing a crisis with ESL provision in that while English is important to them economically and socially they are being denied their ancestral culture by losing their language and until further research has been carried out in this field it is feared the long-term issues of the teaching of English to Pacific ESL learners will remain problematic.

(Sourced from: http://www.clesol.org.nz/2008/CLESOL08SaturdayAbstracts.pdf, Date accessed, 21/11/08)

It is not just basic fundamental issues relating to culture or quality of teaching practice, other complications arise when learners have other specific learning needs which can further limit their academic success on an ESL course. For example individuals may experience low levels of literacy, no formal educational background or unfamiliarity with the standardized Roman-script. Recent studies in the UK reveal that within a cross- section of ESOL classes. ‘59 per cent of learners have had 11 or more years of

Education, with 23 per cent having more than 15 years in education. Males were more likely than females to have no qualifications 37 per cent compared with 32 per cent of females’. (DfES, 2005) Some of these individuals may be survivors of torture and trauma as well as being older in years and require more time and attention in the classroom. The educational researcher McPherson determined that ‘classes formed on the basis of a range of characteristics which indicate a slow pace of learning, will often result in such a disparate group that their different language and literacy needs will not be effectively met.’ (Hinkel, 2005)

Refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers as well as established settled communities want to learn English. Amongst these individuals there exists a huge diversity as well as some obvious common themes like those already touched upon. All of which bring with them a set of needs and different expectations as to what students require from a course of ESL teaching. Their backgrounds and life histories are often complicated. A number of ESOL Pathfinder projects were commissioned in 2002 across ten locations in England with the intention of contributing to the Government’s Public Services Agreement Target to ‘improve the literacy, language and numeracy levels of 2.25 million adults between the launch of Skills for Life in 2001 and 2010’ (DfES, 2005)

The ESOL initiatives were evaluated later that same year and stressed the diversity of learning characteristics within this sector, with interesting figures emerging about the slightly increased numbers of women than men undertaking the courses. This suggests that there may be a number of challenges for women trying to support their children at home. Gender in itself is another significant point of interest in this study as many women can be believed to have lived in England for a number of years and have never learnt the language or only speak elements of it, these women are often most recognized in Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities where they have very different cultural responsibilities and therefore less opportunities to attend beneficial ESL courses. (Heath and Cheung 2006) In particular women who are asylum seekers or refugees can experience tremendous isolation and feel restricted with access to health services, not being able to speak the language as well as being potentially more vulnerable to abuse or violence from a cultural perspective. The ESOL evaluation revealed that almost half of all learners were less than thirty years of age emanating from a broad sphere of ethnic origin. This ethnic breakdown included White and other students totaling 16 per cent, African, 15 per cent, Pakistani, 13 per cent and Other Asian 13 per cent.

The Learner Survey revealed over fifty-four different first languages spoken by learners. Half were married or living with a partner and one in six were living away from their partner who resided outside of the UK. (DfES, 2005)

The 2008 NIACE report – ESOL: the context and issues also corroborates this evidence and adds that students of English are learning for a variety of purposes which include securing or progressing into long-term employment, supporting their children, being able to access services, being able to integrate more into their surrounding community and aspiring to embrace the British culture and British political systems. (Sourced from: http://www.niace.org.uk/lifelonglearninginquiry/docs/Jane-Ward-migration-evidence.pdf, date accessed, 21/11/08

Most recent studies reflect the need to improve on the way in which ESOL is delivered and encouraged for the benefit of the inclusion of a variety of needs and abilities. It is clear however that this issue has been apparent for a number of years which makes the prospect of re-developing curriculum provision and teaching methods in this complex area of teaching particularly difficult. ESOL has inherently adopted a style which serves a purpose, designed for the masses often to be delivered and completed within a limited timeframe. In 1989 a study of 13 Adult Education ESOL centres across the UK were investigated focusing on bilingual migrant learners. This early analysis captured the attitudes and motivations of these learners and emphasized their desire to maintain their mother tongue and heritage whilst being taught the language and customs of their new host country. (Lal Khanna, et al, 1998)

One of the most interesting and informative research projects to date in this area is reflected in the Adult Learners’ Lives (All) working with people who are learning within adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL groups to understand and appreciate their concept of the learning experience in relation to their wider lives; covering the regions of Blackburn, Lancaster and Liverpool. As part of this initiative a recent commissioned piece of research was carried out amongst ESOL students who were enrolled on an evening class at Blackburn College. The findings of this report share some of the most important data in existence relating to primary first hand interviews with students.

The outcomes reveal both positive and negative opinions relating to ESOL provision, which essentially can be interpreted in both a positive and negative light.

The participants believed that more than anything their work experience had provided them with the best opportunity to encourage their learning of the English language an was much less restricted that the classroom. For many this was their only chance to utilize the language outside of the classroom. The learners were critical about the amount of provision available and found it affected their learning capabilities. One participant in particular, Mahmood found that working all day and then studying English in the evening prevented him from finding a vocational course in a different practical subject that could increase his chances of gaining better employment.

In terms of issues relating to their background and culture, many familiar examples of diversity were apparent across the group as were their complex needs and considerations. Frederick carried the scars of war in his country and suffered considerably both physically and psychologically. Despite this his motivation levels were extremely high.

Iqbal came to England in order to be with his new wife. The transition from his old life and professional career had left him very dissatisfied. Proving earlier references to gender and cultural relationship issues Ammara was studying at degree level and had been instructed by her husband to discontinue with it. This had repercussions on here work life which she had to compromise with and learn English accordingly.

Below are some of the edited extracts detailing the participant’s interviews taken from this report.

Frederick’s story:

‘Frederick came to England for the reasons above and more. He arrived in England with nothing. He didn’t have permission to work, couldn’t speak the language and had no friends or networks. His first step of integration in to the country was his attendance on an ESOL course at Blackburn College. Despite his desperate situation he was anxious to start again and enrolled almost immediately upon his arrival in Blackburn. Although he was aware of the importance of learning English he found the classes very difficult at first: “It was my first time, the first time it was so difficult.” In spite of his worries he continued the classes and vastly improved his English during his first year here. Also significant was the beneficial effect ESOL classes had on his social life. He made many new friends, who helped ease the loneliness of living in a new country, and gave him an extra chance to practice his English.’

Ammara’s story:

‘Ammara sees a close relationship between education and work. She clearly perceives education and training as a stepping-stone into work. She has shown that she is quite adept at completing courses and using the obtained qualifications to find work. Her biggest problem is language related. She had quite a good decent overall level of English when she arrived in England particularly with regards to reading and writing. Due to the high level of education she obtained in Pakistan she was able to complete the courses she took here easily because she had a good level of literacy skills in English. The language issues she is facing these days arise from her limited oral grasp of English and this appears to be most noticeable to her in her working life.

With regards to work and language, Ammara feels she can manage but feels she regularly encounters difficulties. She has numerous concerns about language. She feels very unconfident about her use of grammar and structure when she is speaking. She believes that despite having a good knowledge of English, her speaking ‘imperfections’ lead to a barrier to her professional development. She also thinks that what she describes as a limited vocabulary is a barrier to communication and explanation. This has various implications for Ammara in the workplace. Because she lacks confidence she believes that her language prevents her from using her initiative at work, and so she ‘keeps quiet’. “sometimes I know somebody is wrong and even if the person is senior, I can explain but I just kept quiet because I feel like everyone is picking on me.” She also thinks that people’s perceptions of her professionally will change just because of her language problems.’

Mahmood’s story:

‘While he was waiting for the Home Office to grant him permission to work, Mahmood was unemployed for six months. He used this time to start English classes and familiarise himself with his new country and surroundings. Upon receiving his ‘leave to remain’ and permission to work from the Home Office he got a job at a sewing factory in Blackburn, where he still works. His role is to sew medical paraphernalia such as bandages and neck braces. He says that initially he found this job quite easy, as he was able to use the skills and experience gained from his sewing job in Afghanistan. He does however worry about his future. He says there is little chance of promotion in this job and therefore he is keen to look for different work. He has started to think about a change.

When asked about his future ambitions with regards to work, Mahmood says he would like to do a building job. He thinks that this will be difficult for him to achieve because he doesn’t feel he has enough experience. He doesn’t feel that the experience he gained from his sealing job in Afghanistan will be of use to him here, as he believes that methods of building vary from the two countries. Mahmood is aware that he will have to do a course to help him achieve his aims, but has little knowledge about the courses available to him and thinks that it will be difficult to do a part time course, work full time and continue with his English classes.

Mahmood believes that his job in England has had a positive impact on his language. He gets indirect language support from his work peers: “and if I’ve got any problem with any word, pronunciation they will help me.” He is able to use informal English at work in a mostly friendly atmosphere. He is also positive about the support he has gained from his boss with regards to his language. He says that right from the start of his employment his boss encouraged him to attend English classes. If overtime clashes with his twice weekly evening English class then his boss is always flexible, he will say, “OK you don’t have to work you go to college.” Mahmood is extremely aware of his language needs and is very motivated to improve. He told me that he uses friends at work to practice language covered in class, and his level of motivation can be seen in his 100% attendance in English class and the huge improvements he has made over the last two years.

(Sirling, 2005) Accessed from: http://www.literacy.lancs.ac.uk/workpapers/wp08-esol-blackburn.pdf

What is visibly obvious here are the feelings, aspirations and characteristics of a group of learners who may well require much of the special attention to teaching that this paper is attempting to argue. Although an already fairly advanced English language speaker, Ammara could like so many others at that level benefit from tutoring in just a few specific areas of English acquisition and at a time of the day when she does not have to juggle her family and several other jobs.

And we see with Frederick that despite finding it hard to study and adjust to the cultural and social restraints of a new country he has actually achieved a sense of community and belonging by way of attending ESOL classes.

It is clear that it must not be assumed that all migrant peoples, asylum seekers and diverse ethnicities should be labeled marginalized and socially excluded as there are many who do not experience this type of isolation. Nonetheless it is dependant on the type of teacher, classroom environment and delivery techniques which need to be made consistent in their quality and accessibility.

Returning to Jane Ward’s ESOL into Context paper, she is very specific about the issues relating to the shortage of specialist ESOL teachers which impacts on the overall quality of provision across the UK with long waiting lists and minimized teaching time occurring in a number of venues offering ESOL tuition in urban areas. Rurally too where many migrant workers are being placed on entry to the country there is an inadequacy where teaching experience and expertise to deal with theses communities exists. Ward also stresses that in rural areas ‘learners accessing vocational programmes too often encounter subject tutors who have little awareness or training in language learning.’ (Sourced from: http://www.niace.org.uk/lifelonglearninginquiry/docs/Jane-Ward-migration-evidence.pdf, date accessed, 21/11/08

Chapter Two: Solutions and future provision

Just as the former chapter dealt with the identification of the problems and consequences of inadequacies with ESOL teaching in respect of achieving a holistic and inclusive approach, this chapter will seek to establish potential solutions and recommendations for taking forward initiatives for future change within the current ESOL sector. This will be achieved by way of exploring current government objectives and responses to recent research which has exposed the levels of insufficient delivery within the sector.

In 2003 the National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy published a comprehensive review of recent research projects carried out in the field of Adult ESOL. In particular that which ‘focuses on learners who need English for the UK workplace, for study in further and higher education and for living in the community. The review mainly concentrates on research that has taken place in the last 15 years and it has attempted to include all of the research that has been carried out within the UK. As most of this has been fairly small scale or not directly concerned with pedagogy, research that has been carried out in the USA, Australia, Canada and Europe is also included and its relevance to the UK context is discussed.’ (Sourced from: http://www.nrdc.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=424&ArticleID=353, Date, accessed, 22/11/08)

The recommendations that emerged from this review have been summarised below:

It is recommended that a large scale study of actual practice in different settings is carried out. Alongside this larger study there should be a number of smaller ethnographic studies of good practice in ESOL classes, covering: learners with little prior experience of the written language; bilingual literacy provision; workplace courses; and language support on mainstream courses. The aim of these studies is to provide accounts that can be disseminated to other practitioners.

There should be ongoing research into the relationships between teaching and learning in formal contexts. This could be based around a programme of practitioner research, with support from established researchers. This research should explore:

specific classroom tasks to address issues of accuracy and fluency in the spoken language
an investigation of different media of learning, including written materials and new technology
learners’ discursive experiences and practices outside the classroom, and how classroom practices can take account of them
learners’ expectations and learning strategies.

And that primarily there is a need to track learners in terms of their learning ability and experience (both in and out of the classroom) as well as gleaning specific information relating to them as individuals, the key aims being to determine:

learners who arrive in the UK with professional qualifications and experience, but low levels of English
learners whose first language is an English based Creole or dialect
learners with trauma.

(Sourced from: http://www.nrdc.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=424&ArticleID=353, Date, accessed, 22/11/08)

This is a refreshing indication that learning practitioners are now heavily involved in a dialogue that recognises both the necessity to investigate further into the practices of ESOL and its students nationally. This also compliments the Government’s new commitment within its ‘Community Cohesion and Migration, 2007-08’ report which makes recommendations as well as recognising localised ‘Further Education Colleges, as the centres of ESOL training in the front-line for new arrivals, in particular as they are often the first official agency encountered.’

The report goes on to clarify that teaching staff working within ESOL should be providing ‘support and help to new arrivals and referral to other agencies’. The Government continues in its conviction for change by allocating funding to this area of support. (House of Commons Report, 2007)

This is however not sufficient action for many academics working in the field. As Linda Morrice demonstrates in her paper Lifelong learning and the social integration of refugees in the UK: the significance of social capital. Morrice challenges the UK Government on its recent measures to account for the inclusion and integration of refugees in the face of an increasing migrant population. She refers to the learning issues of refugees and argues that current education systems and opportunities do not adequately address the issues that they face and declares rather that ‘for refugees to become integrated and useful members of society requires a shift away from the present focus on formal, individualised education provision to a greater recognition of informal and social learning opportunities’. (Morrice, 2007)

Alongside this “Discourses on social cohesion widely acknowledge that public education systems provide critical contexts for constructing social cohesion among their diverse communities” (Dagenais et al, 2008 p 85). What this seems to show is that ESOL provision to date may be serving the political ends of British society by covert mechanism of social control.

In her paper Action Research: Exploring Learner Diversity Pam McPherson carried out a class-room project in an Australian adult migrant English language class. It succeeded in profiling as well as discovering the learning needs of disparate learners. She trialed a number of teaching exercises and different learning techniques from course design, resources and even the room layout.

In terms of responding to students with limited formal education and low levels of literacy, she suggested the following actions should be taken and integrated into ESOL courses:

Assessment and referral schemes that can identify special needs at entry into the programme
Bilingual assistance for course information, goal clarification, language and learning.
Low intensity courses
A teaching methodology that has explicit goals, the development of language learning strategies and spoken and written language for community access
Teachers trained to identify special needs and develop appropriate strategies to meet them.
Recognition within the certificates in spoken and written English in order to achieve language goals related to settlement needs and the need for further education and training. (Hinkel,2005)

McPherson also recognises a specific type of approach for asylum seekers and those who have experienced trauma and the tortures of War. That their physical, Social and psychological needs require specialist attention. Assuming that many of these individuals are likely to feel overwhelmed, out of control as well as possessing memory loss and poor concentration it is likely that they will have difficulty with the amount of control and concentration that is associated with language learning. (Hinkle, 2005) Perhaps a solution might be to make ESOL classes more flexible and the level of participation and communication compliant with the needs of the students. Many of McPherson’s findings inspired the government in Australia to make significant changes to their systems of resettlement and language instruction.

What then have the g

1a How can the curriculum offer and delivery vary according to the education and training context or purpose?

The education and training context in this instance varies according to community outreach venues, specifically chosen to reach the parents of children needing ESOL teaching, who have low levels of first language literacy and so require potentially different means of supporting language learning. Different approaches to curriculum design are going to influence how the teacher develops the syllabus or the scheme of work, because this will affect how they select each topic to be taught, how sequence topics and themes, language stages, based on whether this is a process or product based syllabus, notional/functional syllabus, Communicative Syllabus, Top-based syllabus.^[1] For example, a content-based syllabus, based maybe on grammatical structure, would be organised according to sequencing structures, while a communicative syllabus might be more functional or based on identified needs.

Syllabus design is one of the means by which teachers can approach the process of facilitating language learning^[2]. However, in language teaching, syllabus design has been largely neglected. Curricula are ways of organising learning, indicating lesson content and learning progress, while syllabuses are much more concerned with what actually goes on in the classroom, forming part of ongoing development, review and refinement of the syllabus^[3] to meet the needs of the learner while satisfying the requirements of the institution or awarding body. Syllabus design is the selection and grading of content, and is argued to also relate to the selection of tasks and materials^[4]. Because of the complexity of language learning, selection of tasks and selection of content may be different than in other types of learning.^[5] “Lesson planning involves reinforcement with frequent feedback on learning, delayed feedback, allowing trial and error, and praise, marks and prizes.”^[6] All of these means of ordering learning are focused on what and how the ESOL student will learn.^[7]

In this context, the focus is on ESOL Keeping up with the Children – Family Learning, and so the curriculum is designed with this in mind, but the needs of learners in ESOL can vary, including a more academic approach, such as ESOL in FE^[8], or intensive ESOL training for Job Search, or Vocational ESOL (eg ESOL embedded in something else, like Catering). This would then require a more functional syllabus which would be focused much more on vocabulary, and schemes of work would take this into account, practicing key elements of communication rather than simply grammar. Dynamic language learning is more complex than simply the repetition of sounds, words and sentence structures, and so the communicative approach may be much better suited.^[9] However, all of these approaches could also potentially serve to help ESOL students integrate into the social world as well.^[10]

However, the syllabus design and development in this case is also constructed within the requirements of the awarding body, thus requiring that students learn sufficient and in the right manner to meet the assessment requirements, and develop a general English vocabulary which covers personal details and experiences, work, education & training, housing, family and friends, health, transport, weather, buying goods, leisure, UK society. The scope of such learning is significant, and cannot all be developed in one term, but the provision of vocabulary lists, and the implementation of constructive methods of learning can be built into the syllabus to allow for ongoing linguistic development which builds upon learning session by session.^[11],^[12]

1b How might the different approaches to curriculum design you have outlined influence the outcomes for individuals and groups?

The kinds of outcomes which relate to the curriculum here include looking at what skills, vocabulary and language structures will have been learnt in the different educational settings or contexts^[13]. For example, the work or occupational based ESOL courses will be limited to the kinds of vocabulary which relate to work activities and practices, and will be quite specialised, while the kinds of programmes which are to do with family learning are likely to relate more strongly to more practical language which can be used in the home and in key scenarios such as learning how to communicate with school teachers and other people about the child. But over-defined objectives can limit learning, rather than support the dynamic forms of learning which are often more suited to ESOL.^[14] One of the problems is that the primary contexts for learning, particularly if they are very specialised, such as the occupational learning context, or even learning English as a tourist, can lead to bad habits, because language learning is a process of developing attitudes and habits.^[15]

Thus the habits that have been developed in one context, may benefit or hinder the use of language and the learning and development of further language skills in another setting. However, supporting a degree of learning awareness and self-direction in learning is important, and depending on whether the curriculum is didactic or communicative, this could be more easily achieved or else become more difficult. A communicative approach is much more focused on the needs of the learner, and so is more dynamic, and more likely to foster self-direction in language learning. ^[16] Self-direction and the identification of structural regularities in language, such as learning applied grammar, can be enhanced by more directed learning approaches, or by a mixture of content-focused syllabi and communicative approaches^[17], which has been the author’s experience in their current context. Despite the strengths of different approaches, the context of learning is very significant in how and how well students learn.^[18],^[19] However, language learning curricula, and the impacts of different approaches to teaching and learning, are still relatively poorly researched, and it would be useful to have more, diverse research and case studies which identify what kinds of approaches have been proven best in which settings.^[20], ^[21]

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Sunderland: Business Education Publishers.

Roberts, C. & Baynham, M. (2006) Introduction to the special issue: Research in adult ESOL, Linguistics and Education, 17, 1-5

Rogers, A. (1996), Teaching Adults, 2nd edition, Buckingham: Open University Press.

Widodo, H.P. (2006) Approaches and procedures for teaching grammar. English Teaching: Practice and Critique. 5 (1) 122-141.

Zamel, V. and Spack, R. (2006) Teaching Multilingual Learners across the Curriculum: Beyond the ESOL Classroom and Back Again. Journal of Basic Writing (CUNY), 25 (2) 126-152.

1

Teaching English in Saudi Arabia – The Cultural Context
Introduction

In this essay, I aim to examine the cultural context predominant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in so far as it might affect effective teaching and learning styles and strategies in the EFL classroom.

My interest in this topic is grounded in the reality of the post-9/11 world where the Western world has been pitted against the Arabic world as if there is a great social, cultural and religious divide that might never be bridged – or so the message in the media goes. This poses a great challenge and temptation for EFL teachers working in or curious about the region.

The KSA makes for a particularly interesting study into how the local cultural and religious context might impact on successful English teaching and learning, because of the Kingdom’s “politically sensitive geography” (Marcinkiewicz, 1995). The holy cities of Mekkah and Madinah are situated right within its borders and the KSA has thus “undertaken a protectoral role in religion.”

It follows then that the Islamic religion is not only the most pervasive aspect of local culture, impacting directly on teaching method and content, it is also a significant motivating force for KSA learners who are “intensely religious, Islam having a strong influence on their minds and hearts.” (Al Haq and Smadi, 1996). It can thus be expected then that the religious dynamics in the KSA will “cause friction in the classroom” (Traynham, 2006). With Islam being the “strongest denominator” of students in the KSA (Kniffka, 1996), cultural awareness must inform any teaching methodology in order to achieve successful outcomes.

Outline of essay

I will introduce the cultural context underpinning effective language teaching and learning and give a brief background of the history of English instruction in the KSA as a way of introducing the larger historical and cultural context in which English-language instruction occurs. I will next consider some of the specific sociocultural and sociolinguistic issues that impact on the learning styles and strategies preferred by students and teachers in the KSA. Referring to the relevant literature, I will suggest connections between the local cultural context and the effectiveness of learning and teaching methods and strategies employed. Finally, I will conclude that while the local culture affects both students and teachers – and teachers must respond to this at the practical and theoretical levels – teachers must, at the same time, avoid overgeneralizing about cultural and religious factors and understand that each and every classroom exhibits a unique dynamic between a given set of individual students and their teacher and that, in fact, in many cases a universal education culture exists in all EFL classrooms regardless of social and cultural geography and context.

The cultural context underpinning effective language teaching and learning

In the past decade the concepts of context and culture have become increasingly more important in the literature on language teaching (Byram and Grundy, 2003). This is due to the increased acknowledgement of the significance of socio-political factors in teaching and learning and of the perception of learners as social beings who respond to learning a new language with “feelings and identities” (p. 1). In language teaching, cultural context is “usually defined as a/the culture associated with a language being learnt” (p. 1).

As far as the English language is concerned, English has been taught in the KSA ever since the Kingdom was established, in 1932 (Al-Seghayer, 2005). The explosion of economic activity within the oil industry resulted in rapid development of English language programs in the 1970s, so that Saudis could successfully communicate in English with imported manpower and outside interests. Today, English is used as the major medium of instruction in universities where science, medicine, engineering and technology subjects are taught. English instruction begins in elementary school and is centralized and controlled by the Ministry of Education. Despite the ever-increasing importance of English in Saudi Arabia “as an essential vehicle for personal and national growth,” (Al-Seghayer, 2005, pp129), the system still fails to produce a satisfactory level of English language proficiency in Saudi learners.

This seems to be an incongruous result, considering that the socio-cultural motivations for learning English are quite significant. Al Haq and Smadi (1996) find that a good knowledge of English rewards with social prestige and is considered to be a kind of duty to help Saudi Arabia advance economically, culturally and religiously at both the Islamic and international levels. With English being the lingua franca, in so far as technology and the sciences are concerned, Saudi citizens see English as a vital tool in advancing in this modern world.

But this might be part of the problem. The English language – as the bearer of the goods of technology and science – necessarily comes with Western culture. Languages are expressions of national, historical and cultural identities. Languages are also “ideological because they are associated with aspirations of unity, loyalty and patriotism,” and “social because they are perceived as symbols of status, power, group identity, and belonging,” (Wesche, 2004, p. 279). As such, there is a fear in the KSA that the “use of English entails Westernization, detachment to the country, and a source of corruption to […] religious commitment.” (Al Haq and Samdi, 1996, p. 308).

The sociolinguistic features of the English language – the grammar, phonetics and vocabulary – necessarily impact socio-affectively on the society of EFL learners (Khuwaileh, 2000, p. 287) wherever they might be situated in the world. In the case of Saudi Arabia, English language instruction often relies on Western cultural content that conflicts with Islamic culture and ideals. For example, Traynham (2006) explains how many EFL textbooks contain vocabulary – dating, alcohol, music, dance – that is offensive to Saudi students and to the Islamic faith.

Khuwaileh (2000) also found similar sociolinguistic obstacles and cultural barriers when learners in an English for Science and Technology class refused to write on topics that included “taboo vocabulary” such as, AIDS, sexual diseases and contraception (p. 286), because for one student, at least, “religion,” “honor” and “politeness” were more important than gaining the certificate in English. Khuwaileh concluded that, unless modified, “course material rich in taboo content can significantly hinder the learning process.” (p. 287) Moreover, in a study of EFL textbooks – largely those written by non-Saudis and non-Muslims – used to teach freshman English in Saudi Arabia, Alhaidari (2003) found that they contained images and vocabulary “that clashed directly with Islamic and Saudi cultures.”

These issues might seem easily solved, if common sense prevails even before theoretical and pragmatic considerations are examined. Offensive material should be avoided by designing unique material adapted to the socio-cultural reality of the student group. Even so, the pervasive presence of the textbook as the “dominant tool in teaching” holds a “powerful influence” over both cognitive and affective factors in individual students (Alhaidari, 2003, p. 3). Cultural revulsion towards a given text might impact on a student’s attitude to authority (in this case, the English language and English teacher) and on a student’s attitude to how important a text might be. A negative response, which is likely to be expected, will surely result in “learning difficulties, probably lost teaching objectives and, consequently, useless curricula.” (Khuwaileh, 2000, p. 287).

Cultural issues in Saudi Arabia affecting effective language learning strategies

For all of these reasons, awareness of cultural issues is not only beneficial, but a necessity, and Kniffka (1992) stresses that EFL instructors need to increase their level of expertise in cultural awareness and teaching language within a cultural context. Cultural awareness begins with the understanding that culture is a concept that concerns the role of the individual in the “unending kaleidoscope of life situations of every kind and the rules or models for attitudes and conduct in them” Oxford (1996, p ix). Context includes the beliefs, perceptions and assumptions that directly influence two things: language learning styles (the general approaches that guide learning) and language learning strategies (the specific steps or techniques used by learners).

Of the six types of learning strategies – cognitive, metacognitive, memory, compensatory, affective and social – outlined by Oxford (2003, pp. 12-15), studies (introduced below) find that Arabic students tend to use cognitive and metacognitive strategies with greater frequency, and socio-affective strategies with lesser frequency, though students also exhibit an optimistic flexibility toward using a wide range of learning strategies.

Abu-Ghararah (1996) found that “a wide variety of learning strategies were used” even while the majority of the EFL students surveyed in three public schools in Madinah “tended to use more cognitive strategies […more] than socio-affective strategies […] in acquiring English as a foreign language” (p. 6). Abdan and Almuarik (1992) also found that students exhibited a preference for multiple learning styles. In fact, gender and subject major, in their study, made no difference at all to their preferences. Riazi and Rahimi (2005) similarly found that while their Iranian student subjects used metacognitive strategies “at a high frequency,” overall they were “ medium strategy users.” This can be extended to Saudi Arabia, because both Arab countries have a “similar history, culture and language” (p. 282).

These studies show that students regularly “combine all the learning orientations.” Riazi and Rahimi (2005, p. 110) suggest that this openness and flexibility results from a “specific philosophy of life” where “a human being can only be perfect, when he studies all of the sciences and arts.”

Reasons pointing to more frequent use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies might be that these strategies offer students direct ways to control learning and are strategies that can be employed in private study, rather than in group situations, which seem to be less preferred. Another factor suggested was that these students might not have much exposure to English in social situations so as to “pick up” the target language “unconsciously.” Reasons pointing to the minimal use of other strategies might be, apart from cultural background, “improper teaching,” and again lack of exposure to English in a native environment with native speakers.

For Riazi and Rahimi, at least, it is up to the English instructors to introduce other strategies by discussing them with their students and providing appropriate opportunities to develop and use those “neglected strategies” (p. 123). To this end, Zaid (1996) evaluated the methodological preferences of teachers in an English department at a major KSA university and found that the overall preference was for a communicative style of teaching. This is interesting when considered against the findings of Riazi and Rahimi (2005, p. 103) where social learning strategies were the least frequently used strategies of EFL students. In fact, Khuwaileh (2005, p. 282) also concluded that social strategies, such as group work and openly expressing opinions in the classroom are “culturally bound practices which seem to hinder English language learning.” Zaid (1996) warns against teachers developing “personalized theories” of teaching when it might result in a “methodological gap” between what they are doing in the classroom and what program administrators – working within the socio-cultural framework of the KSA – expect. Personalized teaching might also result in a preferential gap between how the teacher prefers to teach and how the students prefer to learn.

Good practice then is clearly a collaboration between program administration, teacher preference, and the expectations of students as a group and as individuals. “Individual” is stressed here because, as Oxford (2003, p. 16) emphasizes, a teacher needs “adequate knowledge about their individual students’ style preferences” in order to provide the most effective classroom instruction. The literature examined in this essay, while clearly suggesting learning trends and preferences based on cultural background, also suggest an openness and flexibility in the learning strategy preferences of Saudi, and other Arab, students. In fact, the impact of culture is often found to be influenced by other factors, such as individual personality traits (Oxford, 2003), gender, as well as motivation (Kaylani, 1996, p75). Individual learners who are more motivated – regardless of cultural background – will use a wider range of learning strategies thus ensuring greater success in their learning (Oxford, 1996a, p118). This may further imply that students may successfully adjust preference and expectation if a teacher introduces new activities “on trial” (Tomlinson, 2005), in the first instance, and only incorporate lesser used strategies should students find them useful and enjoyable.

In fact, Tomlinson (2005) suggests that while learners may well have expectations based on cultural norms and experiences, the level of innovation introduced by any given individual teacher into the EFL classroom may have the effect of creating a new and unique to the classroom “temporary culture.” Tomlinson finds that even in significantly different cultural contexts, “educational cultures seem to be remarkably similar” (p. 139), what he refers to as a “universal” education culture. He calls it a Tomlinson seeks to stress the “teacher’s attitude” in response to the perceived cultural context in which they work and warns against the “dangers of cultural overgeneralization.” He concludes that teachers should remember that in a classroom teachers teach to a “class of diverging individuals rather than to a convergent group of cultural stereotypes.”

Conclusion

In conclusion then, the sociocultural and religious context in the KSA clearly influences teaching and learning. Teachers should not only be aware of the cultural context in which they teach and but this context should directly inform their choices of method and materials. However, teachers should avoid, on the one hand, making methodological choices based on overgeneralizations and preconceived ideas about how cultural issues influence their students, and on the other hand, should also avoid personalizing their methodology to suit their preferences and ideology. Methods and strategies employed in EFL instruction should always be negotiated anew between the teacher and the group of individual students. And all of this, of course, within the general framework of the sociocultural and religious dynamic prevalent in the KSA.

References

Abdan, A.A., and Almuarik, S.A., 1992. The Learning Style Preference of Saudi EFL University Students. In Journal of King Saud University. Educational Sciences & Islamic Studies. [online] Vol. 4, No. 1, Abstract from King Saud University Journal Digital Library,

Available from: http://digital.library.ksu.edu.sa/paper2214.html. [Accessed 15 November 2008].

Abu-Ghararah, A.H., 1996. The Learning Strategy Uses of EFL Students. [online] In Educational Journal, Faculty of Education, Kuwait University. Vol. 10, No, 38, pp. 15-32,

Available from: http://abughararah.com/App_content/File/Researches/07.pdf [Accessed 16 November 2008].

Alhaidari, A.O., 2003. The Compatibility of Freshman EFL Textbooks Used by Saudi Universities with Islamic Culture. [online] In Journal of King Saud University. Educational Sciences & Islamic Studies. Vol. 15, No 2, pp1-41,

Available from: http://wwww.ksu.edu.sa/printpress/researches/V28M206R2970.pdf, King Saud University Journal Digital Library. [Accessed 17 November 2008].

Al Haq, F.A., and Smadi, O., 1996. Spread of English and Westernization in Saudi Arabia. In World Englishes, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp 307-317.

Al-Seghayer, K., 2005. Teaching English in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Slowly but Steadily Changing. In G Braine, ed. Teaching English to the World: History, Curriculum, and Practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, p 125-191.

Byram, M., and Grundy, P., eds., 2003. Context and Culture in Language Teaching and Learning. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Kaylani, C., 1996. The Influence of Gender and Motivation on EFL Learning Strategy Use in Jordan, p 75-88. In Oxford, R.L., ed., 1996. Language and Learning Strategies Around the World: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. : University of Hawai’i Press.

Khuwaileh, A.A., 2000. Cultural Barriers of Language Teaching: A Case Study of Classroom Cultural Obstacles. In Computer Assisted Language Learning, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 281–290.

Kniffka, H., 1992. Cultural Identity, Life Cycles and Intercultural Communication: Teaching German to Adults in Saudi Arabia. In Language Teaching Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 75–80.

Marcinkiewicz, H.R., 1995. Educational Technology Transcends the Saudi Desert and Cultural Mores. [online] In TechTrends, Vol. 40, No. 2. Preview available from http://www.springerlink.com/content/m415w713355677h4/fulltext.pdf?page=1, Springer Boston [Accessed: 16 November 2008].

Oxford, R.L., 2003. Language Learning Styles and Strategies: An Overview. In Learning Styles & Strategies: Oxford, GALA.

Oxford, R.L., 1990. Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. New York: Newbury House.

Oxford, R.L., 1996. Language Learning Motivation. Manoa: University of Hawai’i Press.

Oxford, R.L., ed., 1996a. Language and Learning Strategies Around the World: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Manoa: University of Hawai’i Press.

Riazi, A., and Rahimi, M., 2005. Iranian EFL Learners’ Pattern of Language Learning Strategy Use. In The Journal of Asia TEFL, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 103-129.

Tomlinson, B., 2005. English as a Foreign Language: Matching Procedures to the Context of Learning. In Hinkel, E., ed., Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, p. 137-154.

Traynham, M.S., 2006. Challenges for EFL Students and Teachers in Saudi Arabia [online] TESOL Courses. Available from: http://www.tesolonline.com/articles/complete_articles.php?index=177&category=59 [Accessed: 15 November 2008].

Wesche, M., 2004. Teaching Languages and Cultures in a Post-9/11 World. [online] In The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 88, No. 2, pp. 278-285. Available from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3588759, Blackwell Publishing. [Accessed: 16 November 2008].

Zaid, M., 1996. Ascertaining the Pedagogical Preferences of EFL Teaches in Saudi Arabia. In Journal of King Saud University. Educational Sciences & Islamic Studies. [online] Vol. 8, No. 2. pp. 1-20. 20. Available from http://digital.library.ksu.edu.sa/V8M317R2260.pdf

Abstract from King Saud University Journal Digital Library. [Accessed 15 November 2008].

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Education Students Disabilities2.1 The role played by teacher’s attitudes towards education of students with disabilities in the development of inclusive education.

It is a well known fact that attitude of teachers affect the atmosphere of learning and influence whether students with limited abilities receive equal educational chances. This can be shown by looking at situations in different parts of the world.

In Ghana for instance, the idea of education that is inclusive is aligned with the policy of increasing access, participation and retention of all students of school going age in education. Challenges exist in areas of access, quality education and retention especially for students with disabilities.

This is attributed to lack of professional activities of development for teachers, limited resources and ineffective monitoring system provided to schools. Negative attitude and prejudice is the most critical of all barriers to free universal education especially for disabled students. Interestingly, some teachers still name the curses from gods as the cause of disabilities. (Agbenyega 2005)

Beliefs about ethnicity, disability, concerns, ethnicity and attitude of teachers influence practice of all inclusive education, educational materials’ quality and instructions received by students. Many regular education teachers feel unprepared and scared to work with disabled learners and display anger, frustration and negative attitude towards education. They also believe it lowers academic standards. (Education Act, 1996)

Teachers’ beliefs about inclusion suggest that they do not like teaching disabled students especially those who have sensory impairments as in regular classes. They prefer them being educated in special schools. Their defense is that with usual students too much time is not wasted in support and guidance. They are yet come to terms with the belief that mute and deaf students can receive education in regular schools.

Teachers also believe that including disabled results in incompletion of syllabuses as they limit the amount of work that can be done in a term. They further believe that including disabled in regular classes affects the performance of their fellow students without disabilities. On this they claim that there must be consideration on placement of students with disabilities into regular schools as their placement disturbs academic performance and emotions and of other students who are not disabled. (Smith and Luckasson 1995)

Teachers overwhelmingly believe that inclusive education is impossible unless their needs for specialist resources are addressed. Overall belief is that without sufficient support and resources, inclusive education is not possible and is doomed. The beliefs, negative attitude and concerns expressed by teachers may be explained due to lack of professional preparedness, available resources, sufficient orientation and specialist assistance. Initial professional knowledge and further training, human and material resources enhance teachers’ attitudes positively and affect their willingness make inclusion work (UNESCO 1994)

2.2 Teachers’ attitudes towards education of students with disabilities. A historical review.

Estimates of global populations indicate that more children with disabilities live in developing third world countries than in industrialized countries. It has been suggested that integration in developing countries can be facilitated much more easily and successfully than in North America and Western European countries because there disabled students are already in the mainstream unlike in countries with a dual system of regular and special education.

Recognizing that schools in developing countries have untrained teachers, large class sizes, transportation problems, lack of resources and facilities, the policy makers should consider the regular classroom as the mainstream model in facilitating inclusive education in poor countries.(UNESCO 1997, 1999)

Educational researchers have historically taken varied positions which are varied regarding integration or inclusion. Those who support the programmatic model point to the academic and social gains of the students with disability as well as acceptance of diversity among fellow students and community members as benefits of inclusion. Opponents note concerns about lack of training, personnel and administrative support and the uncertainty of academic and social gains through adopting such models (Gartner, 1995; Whitaker, 2004).

Research that has been carried out in most regions of the world on teachers mirrors the political agenda of these countries in focusing attention on the exclusion of children from educational opportunities (UNESCO 1994).

Some countries have enacted legislation pertaining to integration of disabled students while some are just beginning the process of implementing these programs and policies. In overall, research seems to support the notion of a general culture of teaching in that teachers’ attitudes towards students with disabilities are consistent and similar irrespective of the different national cultures in which teaching takes place. A cross cultural study conducted on teachers’ attitudes in Haiti and the USA revealed that teachers had similar attitudes towards inclusion. (Thematic Group 9, 1996).

Special Education in the United States has a long history that reflects many changes in attitudes towards disabled people. Special education was a established in the United States in the 1800’s with students who had demonstrated disabilities such as deafness, blindness, crippling conditions as well as idiotic and feeble-mindedness being taught in institutions. Many diverse groups have attributed this change to including parents, psychologists, educators, physicians, clergy, researchers and the disabled. (Smith and Luckkason, 1995)

2.2.1. Shaping the development curve: mainstreaming-integration and inclusion

The right of students with disabilities to receive a free and appropriate education in the least restrictive environment is solidly rooted in the provisions of the United States constitution. Particularly, the guarantee of equal protection under the law granted to all citizens P.L.94-142 clearly required states to ensure that children with disabilities be educated with children who were not disabled and that other educational placements be considered only when the nature of the disability was such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services could not be achieved satisfactorily. (.http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/1994/inclusion.htm)

Disabled students are being included at every level of the education system as a result of efforts by all of those concerned about them, parents, advocates, teachers and administrators. The effect of inclusive education is being increasingly being evaluated by including children with disabilities in assessments of school performance. (Barlett and McLeod 1998)

Much has been learned about the strategies that make inclusion work from the experience of others. School staff that focus on changes in the school as a whole-curricular, instructional strategies, instructional strategies and use of resources have been successful when given time for training, collaborative planning and opportunities to celebrate their achievements. (.http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/1994/inclusion.htm)

Disabled students require extra supports facilitated through personal assistance, class assistive technologies and related services in order to receive an appropriate education. Planning for studies should include the scheduling of supports at appropriate times in order for supports to be able to complement activities in classroom. Students who need assistance later in life benefit greatly from learning management support services early in life. (Marches 1998)

The fact that students with disabilities are included in some schools is all the more remarkable given the vast numbers of barriers that exist from the federal government going down. In addition to the barriers faced by most students with disabilities minority students with disabilities face even greater barriers to inclusion. Of all the barriers to inclusion, the single greatest factor seems to be the system of financing special education. (.http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/1994/inclusion.htm)

The basic concept of inclusion and integration states that principles of equity, discrimination, social justice and human rights make it compulsory that students with special needs and disabilities should enjoy the same privileges as all other students in a regular school environment and to a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum (Knight 1999).

It is believed that integration in the mainstream enables students with disabilities to benefit from the stimulation of mixing with relatively more able students and having the opportunity to observe higher models of social and academic behavior (Elkins 1998).

The move towards integration began tentatively in a few countries as long ago as the late 1960s and early 1970s, but the trend became much more vigorous on an international scale in the 1980s and throughout the 1990s. A major factor influencing the rapid worldwide movement towards inclusion was the promulgation of the Salamanca statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education. This statement recommends among others, that all students with special needs should have full access to regular schools and be taught in schools using predominantly adaptable and child centered pedagogy. (UNESCO, 1994)

For integration and inclusion to be successful, one clear condition is that teaching methods and curricula will need to change in order to accommodate the diversity of students to be included in the average classroom. The reforms proposed by most education commissions certainly suggest that all students would benefit from more student centered approaches in teaching and much greater flexibility in curriculum planning. This will certainly make it more feasible for students with special needs to receive an education geared to their abilities. (Ainscow, 1997)

2.2.2. Attitudes of regular school teachers’ vis-a-vis of special school teachers.

Inclusion of students with disabilities in the regular classroom has been met with a lot of resistance from regular education teachers who would be responsible for educating special needs students. This is because they lack in-service training to increase their skills. In-service presentations are most effective in improving attitudes. Regular classroom teachers are usually stereotypic and negative. (Befring, 1997)

Regular school teachers believe that students with disabilities require special needs which cannot be provided in inclusive based regular classroom. They also believe that their professional knowledge and skills are inadequate to effectively teach students with disabilities in regular schools. (Sharma, 1999)

Special school teachers usually have a positive attitude towards students with disabilities. This is because they are usually trained before service on how to handle students with disabilities. Their positive attitude about including and teaching students with disabilities in general education classroom is related to the levels of special education training and experience in working with students with disabilities. (Forlin and Hattie, 1996)

2.3 Teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education of students with disabilities at different school levels.
2.3.1. Pre school teachers’ attitudes and primary teachers’ attitude.

Pre School teachers’ have negative attitudes towards children with disabilities. A lot of children who are emotionally disturbed possess deficient long-standing patterns of disruptive and deficient behavior. These children are particularly upsetting to teachers because they challenge the teachers’ role and threaten the order and composure of the classroom. Some of these children exhibit the feelings needed to get what they want that is manipulate others. These children are often able to identify weaknesses in the teacher and exploit them. (Carey, 1997)

Majority of primary school teachers both female and male have negative attitudes towards the inclusion of students with abilities in regular classes. Children taught by teachers who show highly positive attitudes have significantly higher levels of classroom satisfaction and marginally lower levels of classroom friction than children taught by teachers with less positive attitudes.

Primary school teachers are usually worried about the well being of students with special needs in the general education. It is usually hard for them to ensure that special children do not lose out in both academics and related skills as compared to other children in the class. (Carey, 1997)

2.3.2 Education administrators

Demographic factors, training and experience does not have a statistically significant effect on administration attitudes towards inclusion. Administration programs that are good prepare administrators with stronger, more positive attitudes toward including students with disabilities. School counselors can take the lead in assessing school climate in relation to students with disabilities initiating interventions or advocating for change when appropriate. (Wilczenski, 1992)

Some school administrators might possess slightly negative attitudes toward students with disabilities. The attitudes of school counselors are similar to if not more positive than those of other school personnel. Principals who have completed more training both (pre-service and in service) related to inclusion and special education have positive attitudes towards students with disabilities.

It is claimed that the understanding of administrators on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is very limited and they have not taken any measure to ensure compliance to it. Negative attitudes have been indicated to be of the more significant barriers to successful integration of students with disabilities. (Wilczenski, 1992)

2.3.3. Secondary schools teachers’ attitudes

These teachers have more positive attitudes compared to primary school teachers. Teachers’ expectations and beliefs are easier to change than their behaviors and emotions. High school teachers also have positive attitudes towards the use of the software because the software has the potential to improve student learning, increase student engagement, provide important study skills and improve student motivation through the novelty of using computers is social studies instruction. High school teachers cooperate more with each other when it comes to provision of assistance regarding disabled students. (Schumacher et al, 1997)

Some people argue that in primary school inclusion develops well only for serious problems to emerge at the secondary level. These problems could be from the increase in subject specialization which makes it hard for inclusion to sail smoothly. This problem is made worse by the fact that the gap between special students and the rest increase with age.

Secondary schools usually use the streaming model where students are grouped depending on their level of grasping knowledge. It is also difficult to make curriculum adaptations for heterogeneous students because secondary education is characterized by an excessively academic curriculum for a homogenous group of students. (Smith, D. & Luckasson, R. 1995).

2.4 Influential factors of teachers attitudes
2.4.1 Student related factors

One of the most important factors affecting teachers’ attitudes towards integration or inclusion is the type and severity of disabilities. Research revealed that irrespective of teaching experience, severity of disability shows an inverse relationship with positive attitudes such that as the perception of severity increase, teachers positive attitude decrease. (Forlin, et al 1996).

A study done in fourteen nations discovered that teachers favor disabilities of certain types to be included in the regular school setting. Teachers are more disposed to accept students with mild disabilities than students with more severe disabilities particularly students with social maladjustments and emotional disturbance, due to a lack of training and support and large class sizes. (Leyser and Tapperndirf, 2001).

2.4.2 Teacher-related factors

With regards to gender, reports showed that male teachers’ attitudes towards integration are more negative than female teachers. Other studies that examined teachers experience noted that teachers’ acceptance of integration is related to previous experience with children with disabilities. (Giangreco, 1997)

Overall teaches’ contact and interactions with people with disabilities promote positive attitudes towards integration. Teachers’ with a higher education level are also more negative towards integration. The opposite is true in some cases. Teachers’ attitudes also appear to vary based on integration in-service training. The study reported positive teacher attitudes after in service training, while other studies found that staff development failed to improve teachers’ attitudes. (Stoler 1992)

2.4.3 Education environment-related factors

a) Administrative and policy factors

Factors related to administrative support have been linked to teachers’ commitment to integration. Teachers’ consider the presence of organizational support and resources as critical in forming positive attitudes towards integration. An additional component of positive attitude is related to class size. General educators report that reducing class size to 20 students would facilitate their integration effort (Pollard and Rojewski, 1993)

b) Support factors

Top-down educational initiatives can be rendered ineffective if the program is interrupted at the principle level or the teacher level. The attitude of special educators is determined by general educators. Furthermore most principals are critical of policy changes and their support of inclusion is viewed by teachers as being motivated by cost savings opportunities. (Whitaker 2004)

If a country or state has policy friendly to students with disabilities then teachers are likely to have a positive attitude towards inclusive education. For example, the Zimbabwe education Act 1996, the Disabled Person Act 1996 and various Ministry of Education circulars (Education, Secretary’s Policy Circular No P36, 1990) require that all students, regardless of race, religion, gender, creed and disability, have access to basic or primary education. (Education Act, 1996).

c) Other related factors

Factors external to the school that affect the working conditions of teachers such as financial rewards, status in society and professional expectations have also been found to influence the teachers’ motivation and dedication. The grade level taught is such an external factor found that high school teachers displayed more positive attitudes towards integration than elementary school. Their results also showed there were more positive attitudes towards integration in high school teachers than in primary school. (Leyser et al 1994)

Financial rewards; given that teachers spend up to fifty percent of their time providing instruction to individual students, it is imperative that they receive adequate and appropriate financial and professional development to ensure they are able to work effectively with students with special needs.

Reference

Agbenyega, J. S., Deppeler, J., Harvey, D. (2005).Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education in Africa Scale (ATIAS): An Instrument to measure teachers attitudes towards inclusive education for students with disabilities. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 5, pp. 1-15. http://www.coe.wayne.edu/wholeschooling/Journal_of_Whole_Schooling/articles/3-1%20Agbenyega.doc.

Ainscow, M. (1997). Towards inclusive schooling. British Journal of Special Education, 24, 3-6.

Bartlett, L., & McLeod, S. (1998). Inclusion and the regular class teacher under the IDEA. West’s Education Law Reporter, 128(1), 1-14.

Befring, E. (1997). The enrichment perspective: A special educational approach to and inclusive school. Remedial and Special Education, 18, 182-187.

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Kling, B. (1997). Empowering teachers to use successful strategies. Teaching Exceptional Children, 30(2), 20-24.

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Diversity, Learning and Progress

Introduction: Diversity is about identifying the dissimilarities in the characteristics of individuàls that form their identities and the experiences they have in society. Diversity is the degree of basic human differences among à given population.

The modern-day learning environment faces many learning issues. Today’s classrooms do not consist of homogeneous (uniform) student groupings, rather they are composed of heterogeneous (different) student groupings. As our classrooms take on à new look, our teachers’ approaches to teaching must change to accommodate student diversity. Àlthough the schools are unable to control many factors that can influence à student’s academic success they can improve the ways in which they previously served them. This essay discusses diversity, learning and progress in à concise and comprehensive way.

Diversity

Managing diversity is reàlly about managing differences, and à simple training program cannot accomplish it. It is à culture change; à culture change initiated by enlightened managers who can see the energy and enthusiasm that result from capturing the best of many people and ideas. It is not enough that companies state their concern; they must take actiîn to show that diversity is vàlued (Kram, 1996, pp. 90-98).

Diversity, include diverse perspectives, approaches and sensitivities of culture, gender, religion, ethnic and natiînàl origin, attitudes, socio-economic and personàl differences, sexuàl orientatiîn, physicàl and mentàl abilities, culturàl power groups versus majority culturàl groups, productive abilities, power, knowledge, status and forms of sociàl and culturàl reproductiîn.

Therefore, diversity management means the creatiîn of internàl and externàl environment within which these different perspectives, approaches and sensitivities are incorporated and developed in order to manage diversity in such à way that the full potentiàl (productivity and personàl aspiratiîns) of individuàls and institutiîns may be reàlised optimàlly. (Kram, 1996, pp. 90-98).

Diversity activity is à vàluable resource in the educatiînàl environment and many institutes are seeing the need to implement these programs. Diversity is normàlly viewed as à race or gender issue but diversity covers an extensive range of various personàl differences. Diversity training through activity has become à necessity in businesses because of people’s differences in the educatiînàl field. Because institutes are so diverse, Diversity activity programs will help educate, sensitize and prepare students to get àlong in the educatiînàl environment.

Issues in learning

In sociàl learning theory, development and learning are, in other words, inseparable processes; and they constitute each other in an understanding of learning as participatiîn in sociàl processes.

The overàll governing questiîn for this review is: How does sociàl learning theory contribute to an understanding of organizatiînàl learning, which differs from à point of departure in individuàl learning theory? Most of the literature on organizatiînàl learning and its counterpart, the Learning Organizatiîn, departs from individuàl learning theory; and sociàl learning theory in organizatiînàl learning literature has grown out of à criticism of just that departure. The criticism is elaborated later, but, in short, it is that individuàl learning theory focuses on learning as inner mentàl processes related to the acquisitiîn and processing of informatiîn and knowledge. It leads to mind being the locus of learning, and as à consequence, à separatiîn of the individuàl learner and the context, in this case, the organizatiîn, for learning (Cazden, 1988, pp. 20-26).

Inclus³ve teàching indicates that teaching in techniques that do not leave out students, accidentàlly or intentiînàlly, from chances to learn. Inclus³ve teachers mirror on how they teach, as well as what they tåach, in order to employ the wide range of experiences and learning styles the³r students bring to the classroom (Cazden, 1988, pp. 20-26).

Commun³cating clear expectatiîns, using inclusive language, and articulating your dedicatiîn to honour³ng diverse perspectives can àll add to à more welcoming learning environment (Cazden, 1988, pp. 20-26). Additiînàlly, giving students the opportunity to provide an opinion at different t³mes àll through the quarter can àlso be cooperative in measuring how well your inclus³ve strategies are work³ng.

There is à very clear relatiînship between sociàl and educatiînàl outcomes in the United Kingdom establishing itself from early childhood. Our educàtiîn system has developed over numerous years through à changing society with changing demànds and hopes. The vàlues and assumptiîns that are widely shared throughout our society have determined how and why we teach and to understand why this happened we must consider the history of our relatively brief educatiîn history.

Bowles and Gintis (1976) developed an argument they càlled ‘Correspondence thesis’ where they believed that schools were organized to correspond to the work place. For example, the relatiînships of the principàl, teachers and students corresponded to relatiînships of the boss, leading hand and worker. This form of educatiîn prepared students for different positiîns in the economy in later life and was determined largely by the status of their family within society.

Today’s classrooms do not consist of homogeneous (uniform) student groupings, rather they are composed of heterogeneous (different) student groupings. As our classrooms take on à new look, our teachers’ approaches to teaching must change to accommodate student diversity. Àlthough the schools are unable to control many factors that can influence à student’s academic success they can improve the ways in which they previously served them. When differences in student achievement are detected associated with factors such as race, gender or economic status, à bias in teaching strategy must be suspected (Tenbrink, 1974, pp. 16-21).

Monitoring Progress

Research on self-monitoring typicàlly has employed multi-item, self-report measures to identify people high and low in self-monitoring. The two most frequently employed measuring instruments are the 25 true—fàlse items of the originàl Self-Monitoring Scàle and an 18-item refinement of this measure.

Empiricàl investigatiîns of testable hypotheses spawned by self-monitoring theory have accumulated into à sizable published literature. Among others, it includes studies of the relatiîn of self-monitoring to expressive control, sociàl perceptiîn, correspondence between private belief and public actiîn, tendencies to be influenced by interpersonàl expectatiîns, propensities to tailor behavior to specific situatiîns and roles, susceptibility to advertising, and orientatiîns toward friendship and romantic relatiînships.

It may be mentioned that soon after its inceptiîn, self-monitoring was offered as à partiàl resolutiîn of the “traits versus situatiîns” and “attitudes and behavior” controversies in personàlity and sociàl psychology. The propositiîns of self-monitoring theory clearly suggested that the behavior of low self-monitors ought to be readily predicted from measures of their attitudes, traits, and dispositiîns whereas that of high self-monitors ought to be best predicted from knowledge of features of the situatiîns in which they operate. Self-monitoring promised à “moderator variable” resolutiîn to debates concerning the relative roles of person and situatiîn in determining behavior. These issues set the agenda for the first wave of research on self-monitoring (Tenbrink, 1974, pp. 16-21).

To be brief monitoring is the process of creàting and changing experience into knowledge, abilities, attitudes, vàlues, emotiîns, beliefs and senses. It is the procedure through which individuàls become themselves.

References

Kram, K. E. and Hàll, D. T. (1996). Mentoring in à context of diversity and turbulence . In S. Lobel and E. Kossek (eds.), Human Resource Strategies for Managing Diversity . Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 90-98.

Cazden, C. B. (1988). Classroom discourse: The language of teaching and learning . Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, pp. 30-35.

Lindfors, J. W. (1987). Children’s language and learning . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hàll, pp. 2026.

Tenbrink T D (1974) Evàluatiîn à practicàl guide for teachers Maple press, pp. 16-21.

This chapter will examine the term stigma and discuss the negative attitudes that the public hold towards mental health and mental illness and suggest why they may have adopted these views and attitudes. It will also address the media’s role in portraying these views and sustaining these attitudes towards mental illness. An enormous number of individuals are affected by mental illness worldwide: the World Health Organization (WHO) (2001) has estimated that 1 in 5 persons will suffer from a mental illness each year. A question that could be asked if mental illness is a dominant and prevalent issue within society today why do people still hold these negative views and attitudes within society? Finally the chapter will conclude by making some recommendations for practice, ways that stigma can be reduced and how mental health and mental illness can be portrayed in a more positive light.

To fully appreciate the views and attitudes towards mental illness it is important to understand the concept of stigma. Stigma is derived from the Greek for a mark branded on a slave or criminal (White, 1998). Goffman’s (1963) seminal work on stigmatization has, over the years, stimulated a great variety of educational discussion on the nature, sources, and effects of stigma (Link and Phelan, 2001). According to Goffman (1963) stigma is a physical or psychological mark of disgrace that makes an individual stand out from society. Three types of stigmatizing marks identified by Goffman include,

‘Abominations of the body, tribal stigma, and blemishes of individual character’ (Goffman, 1963, pg 14).

People who encompass these physical or psychological marks are often devalued and dehumanised which consequently leads to their position within society being corrupted by the distressing effects of stigmatization (Goffman, 1963). A definition that can be seen to encompass all aspects alongside Goffman is offered by Miles (1981) cited in Brunton (1997) who says,

‘Societal reaction which singles out certain attributes evaluates them as an undesirable and devalues the persons who possess them.’ (p. 892)

The suffering and loss of opportunities that seems to always come hand in hand with a diagnosis of mental illness can be seen to be connected to the psychiatric symptoms that can be observed e.g. talking to voices, the decrease in daily functioning, and the dip in a persons social functioning in society (Corrigan and Wassel, 2008). However, the loss of opportunities and the person with a mental illness devaluing their own self worth take place for the reason of the stigma that surrounds mental illness (Corrigan and Kleinlein, 2005).

For the purposes of this dissertation ‘negative’ attitudes refers to discriminatory attitudes that are based on prejudice, stereotypes or inaccurate information. Stereotypes are firmly set judgements that are learnt throughout life and held firmly in our mind (Stier and Hinshaw, 2007). They are discriminating views or images related to members of particular groups (Corrigan and Wassel, 2008). Prejudice effects individuals in an emotional manner (Stier and Hinshaw, 2007) and occurs when people within society have the same opinion about a particular stereotype and affix this to a group of people making negative connotations towards that particular group (Corrigan and Wassel, 2008). Then again, Corrigan and Wassel (2008) state that discriminative behaviour can be seen as a direct result of prejudice. This involves a specific group being treated in a dissimilar way leading to that group not being able to access opportunities available to them or their rights being restricted (Stier and Hinshaw, 2007). Negative attitudes towards people with mental distress may be manifested by physical and verbal abuse, problems in the workplace or discrimination from people who provide services to people with a mental illness (Mind, 2010).

Negative attitudes are partly constructed in the language we use to describe mental illness. People with mental distress are often being described in derogatory terms. For example, perpetrators of acts of violence are often described as ‘Lunatics, mad person’ (Tudor, 1996), ‘schizos, nutters, psychos, fiends, monsters and maniacs’ (Twomley, 2007). This makes a clear link between violence and mental distress, it must be acknowledged though that not everyone who is violent necessarily has a mental illness. Angermeyer and Schulze (2001) suggest the general public view people with mental illness as bizarre, fear-provoking, impulsive, violent and lack self-discipline. From this, therefore, it could be suggested that people who have a mental illness are deviants or have deviant behaviour.

Becker (1963) defines deviance as ‘any trait or behaviour that was abnormal when compared to the average population’ (pg. ). If mental illness is classed as deviant then how bad does someone have to act or behave to be classed as deviant. This demonstrates that social rules that are made allow people to judge others as different or in this case deviant (Becker, 1963). This is further supported by Baumann (2007) who suggest that the individual’s picture of the world is created by comparatively constant norms, principles and expectations.

Angermeyer and Matschinger (2005) suggests a diagnosis of schizophrenia has, particularly, been found to be stigmatizing and linked with negative stereotypes such as violence and dangerousness. This shows that by mental health being medicalised it is profoundly unhelpful due to the diagnostic terms such as psychosis which can ‘shackle’ people to the mental health system (Watkins, 2007). In contrast Shepherd et al (2008) describe the recovery model as taking ownership and responsibility for an illness and what can and can’t be done, focusing on the strengths and issues rather than a diagnosis. This is a reliable source provided by the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health. The recovery model will be discussed more in-depth in chapter three.

There is no doubt that the media plays a part in reinforcing the attitudes towards mental health and mental illness. In everyday life the public come into contact with the media by newspapers, TV and radio on a daily basis. The way people with a mental illness are viewed as dangerous can be seen to be fuelled by tabloid media publicity about ‘psycho-killers’ (Tudor, 1996). Examples of this are included in the appendix.

The report, Screening for madness, by Byrne (2009) reveals that films representations of people with experience of mental health problems have become more harmful, he suggests that,

‘Mental health stereotypes have not changed over a century of cinema. If anything, the comedy is crueler and the deranged psycho killer even more demonic.’ (pg. 4)

‘One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ can be seen as the film most remembered for depicting someone with a mental illness acting strangely or violently (reference). Even though this was released 35 years ago it shows the influence of movie stereotypes on attitudes and how these can last generations. This is also demonstrated with the recent film ‘Batman-the Dark Knight’ depicting mental illness with violence which more or less is based around the mental illness schizophrenia (Byrne, 2009). This would suggest that ignorance and lack of understanding of mental illness are still very prominent in society today.

It must be acknowledged there are some exceptions to this, of more recent films that have portrayed a less sensational and more insightful picture of mental illness. For instance, ‘A Beautiful Mind’, in 2002, depicted the true story of a maths genius who had a diagnosis of schizophrenia, while ‘Shine’, in 1996, was the story of a brilliant pianist who had a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Nevertheless, the more positive portrayals can represent mental distress as ‘exotic’, ‘dramatic’ or ‘romantic’ in ways that bear little resemblance to real-life experiences (Lott, 2006).

Likewise, media portrayals of mental health have been far from flattering and largely sensationalized. A survey undertaken in 2000 by MIND found that 73% of people with mental health problems felt that the reporting of mental health issues were unjust, biased and pessimistic (MIND, 2000 cited in Rethink, 2006).

In addition a study by Chopra and Doody (1997) looked at 98 newspaper articles and found there was no significant difference in the portrayal of schizophrenia. They did find overall that 36.1% of articles were negative in tone, 56.7% were neutral and 7.2% were positive. The word ‘schizophrenic’ is often used in tabloid stories in conjunction with violent events, somehow suggesting that the diagnosis can justify why the violence happened in the first place (Twomey, 2007). In reality, the person who happens to have a diagnosis of schizophrenia may have acted in such a way due to taking illegal drugs or may have a violent personality, we need to look at all aspect of what led to a violent situation happening and not just that someone was mentally ill.

The media can often be seen to be responsible for stigmatizing stereotypes of mental illness (Byrne, 1997),however, if the media was used to its potential it can challenge prejudice, enlighten and instigate discussions, helping to reduce the stigma that is so often experienced by people with a mental illness (Salter and Byrne, 2000). It is still evident through reporting on mental health that a diagnosis of a mental illness is linked to violence. There is however, some evidence of positive change where The Sun newspaper was made to remove a headline of ‘Bonkers Bruno locked up’ which was reporting on the sectioning of the boxer frank Bruno under the Mental Health Act (MIND, 2010). In 2006, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) published a code of practice, which banned the use of stigmatising language around mental illness which reduced the use of the terms such as ‘schizo’ and ‘nutter’ (PCC, 2006). This gives an example of just how much the media has moved on over the years and that there are some strategies to prevent harm being done to people with mental health problems.

Becker (1963) concludes that people who are mentally ill are blamed for things that happen in society therefore you would think they would be punished or persecuted. It must be acknowledged that there are extensive resources devoted to the benevolent care and support of those with an enduring mental illness. Even though this is an old source it is relevant even today and apparent how services are developing for people with mental health problems. Nevertheless, people suffering from a mental illness are still feared and excluded from society (Becker, 1963 and Watkins, 2007). When people have acute mental health problems they can appear to the public to be frightening and exhibit odd behaviours which can often lead to police involvement (Taylor, 2008). At such times they can commit criminal acts, often escaping prosecution due to their mental illness at the time (Bowers, 1998; Taylor, 2008). Therefore, it could be argued that the public hold these views due to such examples where people are excused from their actions on the basis of some ‘supposed illness’. It could be suggested that they should be held accountable for their actions as anyone else would be (Bowers, 1998). It can be argued that these attitudes towards mental illness can be seen in a direct parallel to racism (Bowers, 1998). So why do people continue showing negative attitudes and views towards mental health as much work has been done in helping to combat racism, can the same not be done for people with mental illness.

Negative attitudes towards individuals with mental illness is widespread and can be capable of creating a significant barrier to treatment (Piner and Kahle, 1984). It has been established that negative attitudes can be individually the most significant obstruction to integration of people with a mental illness in to society (Piner and Kahle, 1984). Negative attitudes towards mental health can influence the path and result of their mental illness (Bowers, 1998). This can also lead to self-stigma which occurs when an individual with a mental health illness internalizes the stigma and believes they are of less value (Halter, 2004; Corrigan, 2007). This may result in low self-worth, loss of dignity, and lead to feelings of hopelessness (Campbell and Deacon, 2006). People who experience a mental illness often see no potential for them to undertake full time employment due to internalizing these negative attitudes that are held about the psychiatric system (Watkins, 2007). If we don’t help people recover from mental illnesses it is inevitable that it may become an enduring illness. An analogy given compares it to having a broken leg; if you don’t rest it then it won’t heal properly, the same could be said for the mind. Maybe if people were more positive towards mental health and mental illness then people with mental health problems would be encouraged to flourish in the community and not be seen as deviant. This is supported by Sayce (2000) who suggests that being part of the social foundations of the community is necessary for our psychological well being.

Generally most people would like to think they are compassionate and have inclusive attitudes towards people who experience a breakdown in their mental health (Ross and Read, 2004). Except, discrimination is still communicated in everyday social situations in subtly distancing, condescending exchanges, flippant outlooks or obvious hostility leaving people feeling socially isolated (Watkins, 2007). This could be due to the fact that mental illness shows how fragile human nature is therefore people’s/societies anxieties and fears about mental health may be due to seeing the potential that any one of us could develop a mental health disorder (Becker, 1963).

From my practice to date the following example really brought home to me the level of stigma and negative attitudes people have towards mental illness. When listening to an account from a service user it made me realise how public attitudes towards people with mental health difficulties is still a big issue and a real challenge for health care professionals. Mary explained that when taking a taxi to give a talk to students about living with mental illness she got talking to the taxi driver. At first he thought she was a lecturer but when she explained what she was going to do he became very quiet and stopped conversation with her. She found this a very ignorant and closed way of dealing with the situation and became quite upset about it.

Having examined the concepts of stigma, discussed the negative attitudes that the public hold towards mental health and mental illness, suggested why they may have adopted these views and attitudes and addressed the media’s role in portraying these views and sustaining these attitudes towards mental illness. It is now important to draw some recommendations and challenges that can help reduce the stigma of mental illness and promote a more positive picture to members of the public. These recommendations include education and public contact.

Firstly, education of the public both at school and after (Murphy et al 1993; Penn et al 1994) about mental health and its prevalence among every one of us is really important. Education is widely approved for influencing prejudice and discrimination (Corrigan and Wassel, 2008). Corrigan and Wassel (2008) ask the important question,

‘If people had the correct knowledge or effective problem solving skills, would they be able to give up public stigma and handle associated concerns more directly?’ (pg. 45)

Education can generate small effects on attitudes; unfortunately, this kind of change in attitude is seen to not be maintained over time (Corrigan et al, 2001). This demonstrates the need to continually re-educate people to reinforce the message. Challenging the public is most effective when it targets people who frequently interact with individuals with mental illness: landlords, employers, GPs, police officers etc (Corrigan and Wassel, 2008).

Secondly, most importantly the media needs to comply with their code of practice (2006). If something does appear in the media that appears stigmatising people should protest against it not accept it and reiterate that it won’t be tolerated. As nurses we need to encourage that positive things surrounding mental health of mental health are promoted in the media.

Lastly, the public need more contact with people who are experiencing mental health difficulties. This type of contact can provide the most healthy and positive findings toward changing public stigma (Penn et al,1994; Pettigrew and Tropp, 2000). It can be something as small as someone speaking about their mental illness in a group situation to co-workers learning of someone coping with a mental illness. The effectiveness of utilising contact can be improved when the person with a mental illness is seen by society as in the same social class as them (Gaertner et al, 1996). In Link and Cullen’s (1986) study they found people who had contact with someone who had a mental illness showed much lower anxiety around danger compared to those who had no contact. Murphy et al’s (1993) study contradicted this as they found having contact with someone with a mental illness did not impact on their attitude. However, they did establish that people who spoke of having knowledge of mental illness showed a reduced anxiety and fear of mental illness.

Finally, the prevalence of mental illness in society cannot be underestimated. As previously alluded to with 1 in 5 people suffering from a mental illness (WHO, 2001) we cannot afford to ignore the impact of stigma, all health care professionals especially nurses need to advocate for clients and work with others to promote and protect the health and wellbeing of those in their care, their families and carers, and the wider community (Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2008).

Having discussed the views and attitudes that the public hold towards mental illness and those experiencing mental health difficulties it is now important, in the next chapter, to examine the views and attitudes of general nurses. Many will come into contact with people with mental health problems particularly in accident and emergency (a and e) and a medical setting.

Developing a sense of place through Key Stage 1 & 2 Geography Teaching
Introduction

This paper looks at a particular aspect of teaching and learning geography that is particularly significant: developing a sense of place, as defined under the programme of study Knowledge and Understanding of Places of Key Stage 1 & 2 of the Primary School National Curriculum. The idea of developing ‘sense of place’ is first discussed in detail and then children’s learning is considered, in terms of what children will actually learn from undertaking this activity, and why this is a valuable part of the curriculum. In terms of what children will actually learn, the paper will consider such things as developing a ‘sense of place’ using an enquiring approach, enhancing children’s perceptions of their locality and their concept of nested hierarchies, developing a vocabulary for geography, enhancing their observation skills and recording skills, during fieldwork, for example.

Under the National Curriculum for the UK – Geography, the stated aims and purposes of teaching geography are to stimulate children’s interest in their surroundings and in the variety of human and physical conditions on Earth, to foster a sense of wonder at the beauty of the world, to help children develop a sense of concern about the protection of the Earth’s natural resources and to enhance children’s sense of responsibility for the care of the Earth and it’s peoples (The Standards Site, 2007). The aim of key stage 1 is to develop knowledge, skills and understanding relating to the children’s own immediate environment, in terms of the physical environment and the people who live there, with the focus on developing thinking in a geographical way i.e., utilising questions such as ‘What/where is it?’ (aimed at developing observational skills), ‘What is it like?’ (aimed at developing reporting skills), and ‘How did it get like this?’ (aimed at developing analytical skills) (The Standards Site, 2007). Key stage 2 geography teaching aims to further develop knowledge of place and peoples, but further afield from the immediate locality, so that children begin to learn about different scales and how they relate to each other and to other places on Earth (The Standards Site, 2007).

In terms of the current paper, implicit within these stated aims of Key Stage 1 & 2 geography teaching, is the development of a child’s perception of ‘a sense of place’, in terms of children being able to firstly recognise where they are, then to be able to describe the features of their immediate environment, and to undertake investigations which would allow them to further explore and understand their immediate environment (The Standards Site, 2007). With these aims in mind, in terms of developing a ‘sense of place’, one of the first recommended units within Key Stage 1 curriculum is entitled ‘Around our school – the local area’ which uses investigative methods to encourage children to look at their immediate, i.e., local, area.

The investigative methods include funding out where other children in their class live, in comparison to where they themselves live, for example, locating the school in comparison to other local landmarks they know about, identifying what else can be seen in the streets immediately surrounding the school (for example, traffic lights, car parks etc), describing what the immediate environment is like, investigating what jobs people do in the local area, for example by asking other children what jobs their parents undertake, looking at how people spend their leisure time, for example by asking if other children’s parents have hobbies, or what the other children do in the evenings and at weekends, looking at the local area to see if any building work is taking place, and then discussing how this might change the local area, for better or for worse (The Standards Site, 2007). All of these points can be amplified upon by the teacher, and can be discussed in much greater detail with the individual children, and between groups of children, so that the children really begin to develop some sense of their own ‘sense of place’, in terms of understanding and analysing their own local environments (i.e., their school, their home, their routes between school and home etc.).

As can be seen, therefore, the National Curriculum gives a very clear set of guidelines as to how geography should be taught to Key Stage 1 & 2 aged children, with these guidelines broken down in to easy to manage modules, with each module incorporating new skills (such as investigative skills, reporting skills or analytical skills), beginning with investigations and discussions of the children’s local environment and with each subsequent module designed to take the children a little further afield than their local environment. This, it is aimed, will clearly develop a child’s ‘sense of place’ in terms of first orientating them with regards to their local environment, and then, slowly, introducing them to environments that are further afield, for example, through a progression of scales, of nested hierarchies, i.e., studies of, first, the local town, and then subsequently of the local city, the county, the country, Europe, the world and it’s people. It is aimed that through this sequential and progressive approach to teaching about geography, aside from the skills that the children will acquire, the children will also, as we have seen, develop a strong ‘sense of place’.

We have seen that the National Curriculum provides quite explicit guidelines as to how to teach geography to primary school children, but what, on the ground, as it were, can teachers do to ensure that the lessons that need to be taught to children are taught in the best way possible, and are taught in an entertaining and effective manner? To this end, there are all sorts of study aids that teachers can use to teach geography to primary school children. Some of these teacher aids will be discussed in the following sections.

One set of teacher aids, designed specifically for teaching Key Stage 1 & 2 geography curriculum to primary school children is the Super Schemes series, developed by the Geographical Association, in particular Unit 1, which is entitled Around our School: The Seagulls Busy Day and Unit 2, which is entitled Making Our Area Safer: The Twins Holiday. These books use an almost story book-like approach to teach children about geography through the eyes of characters that the children can relate to. It is intended that the children read of the characters, and what they do within the books, and that, through this, the children learn about the aims of the geography curriculum. The explicit aim of this series of books is to enhance and improve the vocabulary of children, in terms of the vocabulary that is necessary for an understanding of geography, to enable their own understanding of a ‘sense of place’. The Around our School: The Seagulls Busy Day title, for example, aims to help children realise that maps can be useful in the location, recording and visualizing of information. The Making Our Area Safer: The Twins Holiday title has similar aims, but also aims to encourage understanding of issues of sustainability of community, through looking at safety issues within the community, in particular the issue of how young children deal with traffic and how young children (i.e., the twins in the story) can manage to overcome the problems that traffic poses to them.

These two books in the Super Schemes series are interesting in that they present a particular, traditional, way of teaching a particular idea to children, using a different ‘take’ on a tried and tested formula, which many teachers may find useful, and easy to implement. For teachers, however, who prefer a more ‘hands-on’ approach in their attempt to develop a child’s ‘sense of place’, there are other, more ‘hands-on’ teacher aids that can be incorporated in to Key Stage 1 & 2 geography teaching, for example, the Earthwalks kit, designed by Hekkle and Van Matre (1980), which is designed to educate users about nature, by making the users ‘get in touch’ with nature, through reawakening the senses of the user, and sharpening their perceptions of their sense of place, for example, and of the beauty of their immediate environment.

The idea of the Earthwalks kit is to provide activities, based around hour-long walks, including relevant activities, which can be used to heighten the users perception of their environment. The activities are written in a child-friendly manner, and the kit is presented in a card/binder format, so that, for example, children can add in their own paper to make notes, or to draw something they have seen along the walk that they found particularly interesting. The approach presented in the Earthwalks kit is entirely ‘hands-on’ and attempts to encourage the development of a sense of wonder about the child’s environment, in terms of encouraging heightened observations and, as such, to encourage heightened appreciation of their environment, developing, very practically, a heightened ‘sense of place’ in the users.

The idea of developing ‘sense of place’ is therefore crucial in teaching geography to primary school children, in terms of encouraging a connection with their environment, encouraging responsibility to the local environment, and laying a foundation on which children can build, in terms of taking this understanding, appreciation and responsibility for their local environment further, when children begin to learn about areas that are further afield, or other cultures, for example. A child that has a well developed ‘sense of place’ from an early age will be much more tolerant, responsible, appreciative and responsive to the ‘other’ than a child that has not developed a coherent ‘sense of place’ from an early age.

As we have seen, children’s learning about geography at Key Stages 1 & 2 is very well structured, and the aims of these Key Stages are very well defined, in terms of leading children gently through the progression of understanding their local environment, and from this later understanding environments that are further afield, or other cultures, for example. In terms of what children will actually learn from undertaking the activities suggested throughout the Key Stages 1 & 2 Geography Curriculum, as we have seen, it is aimed that children will first learn about, and learn to understand their local environment, and then, through Key Stage 2 that they will begin to take these learning tools and move on to learning about environments that are further afield, and about other peoples and cultures. This is a valuable part of the curriculum, obviously, as children need to, as we have seen, first develop a strong understanding of their immediate environment, through developing a ‘sense of place’ and then, from this, take this appreciation, understanding and responsibility to environments that are further afield. This approach to learning about their surroundings encourages thinking in a responsible and sustainable manner, such that children are encouraged to appreciate, and thus to care for, their surroundings, whether these be their immediate surroundings, or whether they be further afield.

In terms of what children will actually learn, as we have seen, the aim of Key Stages 1 & 2 Geography teaching is, essentially, to develop a ‘sense of place’ using an enquiring approach, enhancing children’s perceptions of their locality and their concept of nested hierarchies, developing a vocabulary for geography, enhancing their observation skills and recording skills, during fieldwork, for example. As we have seen, the various teaching aids that are available can help in these aims, especially if the two types of teaching aids, ‘traditional’ versus ‘hands-on’ are used in conjunction with each other in the classroom, in order to encourage children’s learning and acquisition of knowledge.

In conclusion, I feel that developing a child’s ‘sense of place’ is an implicit aim of the Key Stages 1 & 2 Geography Curriculum, and that, as such, encouraging a child to develop a strong ‘sense of place’ is a fundamental part of teaching geography to children at this stage of their development. As we have seen, at the beginning of this paper, teachers have been given a very strong conceptual framework for developing their geography teaching, in the form of the National Curriculum specifications, which provides them a basis on which to teach children about geography. Within this, however, as we have seen, teachers are free to decide how they teach their pupils about geography. We have looked at two ‘types’ of teaching aids, one traditional, using the characters in books to develop children’s vocabulary and sense of responsibility, the other more ‘hands-on’ using walks to encourage a sense of wonder about ‘place’ and to encourage an appreciation of the natural beauty of ‘places’. It is, of course, the decision of the individual teacher as to which type of study aids are chosen in order for the teacher to encourage thinking about ‘sense of place’ within their pupils. In some sense, the way in which geography is taught is not important: what is important is that this ‘sense of place’, this appreciation of a child’s environment is fostered, so that children act responsibly towards their immediate environment, and further afield, in terms of caring for the natural environment as a whole. If this ‘sense of place’ is fostered in the classroom environment by the teacher, the teacher can be said to have done their job, and done their job well.

Sources

Bridge C., 2005. Super Schemes Unit 1, Around our School: The Seagulls busy day, Sheffield, Geographical Association.

Bridge C., 2005. Super Schemes Unit 2, Making our area safer: The twins holiday, Sheffield, Geographical Association.

Hekkle, K. & Van Matre, S., 1980. Earthwalks, Greenville, USA, IEEMills, D. (1992)

Scoffham, S., 2004. Primary Geography Handbook. Sheffield, Geographical Association.

The National Curriculum of the UK – Geography

The Standards Site (2007). Geography at key stages 1 and 2: teaching geography at key stages 1 and 2. Available from http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/geography/teaching?view=get. Accessed on 17^th April 2007.

The following websites were also useful:

http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/geography/?view=get

www.nc.uk.net/webdav/harmonise?Page/@id=6004&Subject/@id=3449

Introduction

Communication is a dynamic process in which a transmitter transmits information receiver via a channel , in order to produce some effect on the receptor. Effects of transmitter on the receiver are often persuasive in nature because when we communicate the information will be understood as send us.

Any information directed intentionally gets the message. This implies the existence of a recipient or acceptor and not just a receiver or collector . Also involved there is a issue, encoder or decoder court.

Communication involves reversal of messages within the relationship which unites two entities, even if the messages are of the same order. Man can communicate with animals, with nature, but the most developed, evolved and of course analyzed is communication within groups of people. This implies the existence of natural or cultural structures and techniques that require organization and regulatory guidelines .

Communication implies the existence of individual goals linked to other targets individuals or groups and subgroups. In a subgroup can be shaped by objectives, skills, availability and situations that cause structure.

Communication within a group involves specific techniques and exercises by: group organization, group members complete interaction , reporting real and creativity of its members.

Creativity is regarded as a property of the human psychic system. It is a particular dimension of personality dimension interacting many factors such as mental ( intellectual, affective, motivational, volitional, skills, attitudes), the nature of social (socio – cultural, educational) and biological. This interaction gives deep complex phenomenon that is fully justified that domain experts could not reach a universally accepted definition. Most definitions of creativity subsumed visions characterized by addressing the concept of aptitude or ability to produce something new, the process to produce new or problem solving. Therefore, the literature is taken as a reference framework or personality variables or creative process or product of the act of creation itself.

Modern research on creativity was born in America on her motivation is pragmatic one, namely the lack of personalities ” creative “. The explosion was triggered studies in the field of Guilford ‘s speech at the meeting of the American Psychological Association in 1950. This speech occur in the same year in an article that warned neglect this problem in scientific research. Guilford posted a three-dimensional model of the structure of intellect which opens early emancipation creativity from under oppressive intelligence. In his model, Guilford distinguish between convergent thinking and divergent thinking. Convergent thinking, confronted with a problem, always seek to deduct the fair way to solve them and also to obtain the unique solution : this is the kind of thought checked using conventional tests of intelligence. Divergent thinking rather seek more opportunities for settlement and this method brand new usage given state of knowledge. Guilford revealed three groups of factors involved in creation : mobility, flexibility and elaboration.

In the 1980s , creativity becomes a favorite theme applied psychology studies. A proof of the importance given to this area in the social context of those years is organizing exhibitions dedicated to creativity. This exhibition marks the time of revival of experimental studies in the psychology of creativity and the emergence of a new model and a new methodology, namely the type cognitivist.

Lately studies on creativity have expanded the reference. Research revealed relationship between creative thinking and critical thinking and the role of variables such as personal style. Moreover the question of creative potential (which has varying degrees each person) and the importance of stimulation and its development.

Content

Creativity is a specifically human phenomenon. Most experts agree that creative potential is present in each individual, it is possible to transform it from virtuality to reality (active under the influence of an environment favorable) that stimulate and develop their creative potential. On this idea, saying that P.P. Neveanu human potential and therefore the creative is not a given size permanently. It can be stimulated by a complex socio-educational approach and organized, including simultaneous activation phenomena, training, cultivation and development through creative virtues update by passing them through effective assertion of possible real.

We must not forget the distinction between creative potential (the potential latent ) and creativity (the actual act), and the distinction made by Aristotle. Otherwise we could draw hasty conclusion that as long as the premise of the original product creativity is only the privilege of adults, children and even adolescents do not possess creative potential. In fact, he still performs acts of originality, but it does mean that it has the potential. In addition, it was found that there is a specific creative potential by age, it should not be considered the child’s potential by adult achievements.

Complexity creativity requires the participation of a large number of factors, different in nature. May be noted, however, two types of factors:

Objective factors (represented by economic and social conditions necessary for cultural climate) ;
Subjective factors (represented by intellectuals factors, skills, attitudes, motivation and willpower ).

Factors considered indispensable in the creative process are: flexibility, fluidity and originality.

Fluidity is the richness, ease and rapidity of associations between images and ideas flow verbal fluency, rich ideation. J. Guilford fluidity distinguishes three types : verbal, ideational and expression. It considers that it is important so as quality of ideas speed.

Flexibility is the effective restructuring of walking thinking in relation to new situations, the ability to easily operate transfer (perceptive plan in the figural and the conceptual) orientation and thinking ability in many different directions ( Carter ) . Guilford distinguish three types of flexibility :figural, semantic and symbolic. P.P. Neveanu consider originality with central factor in creation, since as the number of responses is greater, increase the chance of an original response.

Originality defined by rarity and novelty involves interpretation and personal expression of things, common situations . A. Koestler distinguishes ordinary originality by three criteria :a) the level of consciousness that is driven activity, b ) the type of guidance that trusts subject, c ) the nature of the obstacle to be overcome. F. Barron determined following originality : the independence of the reasoning, complex views, nonconformity, rich perceptual systems, high capacity of generalization, self-confidence, authority. Originality makes the product to be characterized by novelty, singularity, freshness, uniqueness.

Another factor influencing creativity is perceptive style, apprehension. This factor cognitive reaction designate how to solve problems.

Creativity, both at individual and group level may be limited by a number of obstacles (blockage). Among them, in his opinion A.Cosmovici (1998 , pg 154 ) the most common are:

Social jams and conformity , mistrust of fantasy, imagination, or exaggerating the value of logical reasoning and so on;
Methodological bottlenecks resulting from the processes of thinking, in this category include :stiffness previous algorithms, functional fixity (using only objects according to their function and rarely recognized for another purpose) and premature criticism.
Emotional blockages such as :fear of failing, of not embarrass us, rushing to accept the first idea promoted ; discourage rapid and premature , etc. .

All these barriers in the way of creative and innovative attitudes event can be avoided when discussing and analyzing problems to be solved is achieved through genuine effective interpersonal and group work through a positive attitude to each group member to common task and through open communication, uncensored opinions. Such an atmosphere is provided especially when, for creativity group is calling and a number of methods and techniques that create relaxation group, less critical condition favoring free association as ideas promoted in the debate.

The most effective means for overcoming inertia and psychological barriers in the process of creation is the joint creation of intuitive techniques. The most common methods are intuitive creation: Brainstorming, synectic, Panel Discussion, Philips 66, 6-3-5 method, Delphi method and method Frisco.

Brainstorming, or, brain storming, it is an effective method for generating ideas group being drafted in 1948 by the A. Osborn. It is a creative deliberation with the purpose of generating and aligning a set of ideas that can serve as guidance for solving a problem in question.

Basic principles of brainstorming are:

Postponement of criticism (evaluation) . Osborn believes that imagination should be allowed first to soar up into the sky, then back on the ground with critical thinking ( Osborn, 1971);
The need to develop as many ideas on the principle of transformation of quantity into quality.

In addition to these basic principles must be respected and other rules such as encouraging the enunciation and ideas seemingly bizarre , unusual, but the analysis can be very effective, it stimulates combining and improving ideas, formulation of ideas generated so personal thinking and that of other group members.

Synectics or free association is the method developed by Gordon WI and consists in combining different elements, apparently uncorrelated with the aim of releasing the constraints in the problem formulated, eliminating negative responses, annealing thinking and thinking out the template for the development of original ideas and viable.

6-3-5 method involves six people who initially formulated by 3 ideas each. Figure 5 shows the number of people who worked the first 3 ideas neighbor. The exchange of ideas is done until 3 ideas first pass by each group member. Finally, centralized management ideas and transmitted.

Philips 66 method was developed by Philips and JD is actually a brain storming paticipanA?i number is 6, and during the discussion is limited to 6 minutes. There are several groups each consisting of six members, each having a leader who realizes report ideas.

Delphi method was developed by O. Helmer and consists in mutual consultation between the participants. We develop a questionnaire on the topic in question to be sent for completion of specialists. When the responses are collected. Subsequently return the questionnaires for completion this time accompanied by unarticulated responses of the other participants. Phasing ideas that deviate from the average, the circuit ending once the stabilizing responses.

Frisco method aims to discover, to solve difficult problems, complex ways of solving both simple and effective. Involves the formation of two teams. Investigation team, consisting of 12 to 15 persons examined problem solving and re-imagines the classic methods, analyzes them critically and emphasizes basic difficulties. Actual creative team consisting of 5-6 experts, receiving checklist first team, trying to find solutions to enrich new or even existing ones.

Lately, experts have focused on developing a program to promote the work of new ways of learning and thinking styles designed to contribute to the foundation for effective learning, sustainable and constructive. It’s about promoting methods of developing students’ critical thinking designed to help them, through the confrontation of ideas through collaboration and cooperation to find appropriate solutions to resolve data issues. This educational program was initiated by Jeannie Steele and Kurtis Meredith in 1995 and today, through the Foundation Open Society based in New York, he is promoted in many countries of the world. In our country, one of the teachers trainers on effective learning strategies and promoting creative thinking in working with pupils and students, Ion. Dumitru, he published “The development of critical thinking and effective learning ” ( West Publishing House, Timisoara, 2000) we present, in summary, the main features of these methods. Firstly it should be noted that, in terms of this concept, critical thinking is not to have a negative position, unrealistic, inefficient but rather critical thinking is a way to address and solve problems constructively, with the purpose of grounding and foundation opinions , rational argumentation their acceptance of their knowledge. It involves : formulation of each pupil / student of his own mind, personal, original possibly related to an issue responsible debate ideas and advanced solutions for each individual individually or as a result of group work, manifesting a high degree of flexibility, tolerance and respect for the ideas of others and thus acceptance of diversity of opinions and ideas and asking questions like “what if?”, ” what would happen when? “etc. to encourage exploration of phenomena from multiple perspectives, even when some of them are only possible or probable etc .

These features of critical thinking and methods used for its development a very close group creativity peculiarities and methods used for its stimulation. Thus, the main methods of developing critical thinking include:

a) “Think / Pair / Communicate ” . Based on a question from the teacher, students develop their answers individually, then in pairs to communicate to each other the answers, to listen and try to finally reach a consensus or a new response, improved following discussions;

b) the cube method. Helps students to study a theme, a concept from different perspectives , it involves using a cube (real or imagined ) that has different instructions written on each side of it, as follows: Describe, Compare, Associate, Analyze, Apply, Argues. The teacher asks students to write about a particular concept or a theme through all six sides of the cube. It is preferable to follow the order presented because it leads students gradually to complex thinking.

c) Technique “cluster”. It is a technique of teaching and learning that encourages students to think freely and openly, to highlight the various connections between ideas or to build new associations between them. Technology “cluster” may be used individually, but used group enables each student to become acquainted with the ideas of others, links and associations between them made by his colleagues.

d) joint investigation and discussion network. It is a learning technique based on group work, activity guided by one or more questions asked by the teacher, admitting different answers, the result of choices based on arguments. This method involves: reading by students individually, text that contains ideas likely different interpretations, grouping students into pairs and their collaboration to answer one or more questions asked by the teacher to the whole class setting a “discussion networks” between the advocates of a position to produce the necessary arguments and counter counter-arguments supporting it.

In work -based training group investigation and discussion network, several requirements must be met: encouraging participation of all group members in discussions to achieve joint investigation and summarizing the arguments of the group with the agreement of all participants, focusing on the “dismantling” adverse position and arguments not “personal attack”.

Such a method of training helps the students acquire some skills and abilities related to: receptivity to arguments offered in support of their beliefs, the ability to make assumptions about the beliefs and the beliefs of others, the ability of everyone to express open and disagreement in a problem free, creative ability as evidenced by the construction of original cognitive approaches, but also strongly motivated etc.

Conclusions

This brief overview of some of the methods and techniques for developing creative thinking by teachers in the activities with groups of pupils/students is able to provide just one example of their concern for creating adequate conditions to achieve effective learning, and to enhance their creative and innovative capacity. Communication is the tool by which the teacher stimulates the creativity of pupils/students and also the way they externalize their creative potential. Creation itself is the result of symbiosis of communication between teacher and student. Therefore the act of learning focus should be not on the reproduction of information transmitted, but the creation of new ideas that reflect each student’s personal touch.

Therefore, obedience school groups and generally any grouping of scientific research conducted from the perspective of the psychology of new acquisitions can provide teachers and other professionals effective ways of optimizing the activity. These methods and techniques of research in psycho-sociology of human groups are meant to decipher various ways of investigating social groups, structures and processes that arise within it.