Communication in Teaching | Reflection

Communication in Teaching | Reflection Given what you have experienced during the first 21 hours of this study unit, reflect on an experience which involved communication, listening, group building or teamwork or conflict management skills (or any other skills covered in this part of the course) which occurred either during your personal secondary schooling or during your school observations throughout this year. Analyse and reflect upon this experience as explained in your course information sheets. The Value of Interpersonal relationships Interpersonal skills are important for human relationships to initiate, maintain and terminate one`s relationships. According to Johnson Johnson as cited in Johnson (2006) emphasis is made on the fact that â€Å"relationships are the key to your humanness, psychological health, personal identity, social, cognitive, and moral development, ability to cope with stress and adversity, self-actualization, educational and career productivity, and physical health.† On the other hand Johnson (2006) states that â€Å"it is only within constructive relationships that you may improve your interpersonal effectiveness and self-actualization.† (p. 25) Experiences are the most effective situations in life that help the individual to mature, learn and develop his/her personality. Every experience serves as a guideline so as not to repeat the same wrong encounters or methodologies that happened in the past. We must therefore work hard to acquire strong interpersonal skills which enable us to communicate and interact well with each other. Concrete Experience I will be discussing my personal experience with my pupils during secondary school in form three. I used to make part of a group of students in a church school who used to participate and help the school to organise fund raising activities. In the beginning of form three I was encouraged by my friends to be nominated for the students` council elections. Elections for the Council used to be held at the beginning of every scholastic year. Each class was asked to elect one representative for a two-year term. These elections were class-based and overseen by the Class Tutor. I was elected as one of the student council representative. My main tasks included promoting a greater environmental awareness. I was also responsible for the publication of leaflets regarding topics of interest in the school community, organising activities such as casual dress day in aid of charity and Christmas class decoration competition. We also used to organise fund raising activities to complement the school`s main annual fund raising event. The Council used to meet regularly once every month and this helped us to feel part of the school environment. Being members of the school council, together with the school administration we had the opportunity to set up the exams timetable for the half Yearly and Annual examinations. The teacher that used to monitor the students` council was very caring, helpful, understanding and down to earth. She used to encourage us to organise different activities for the benefit of the school. I was one of ten students from the secondary area. Our relationship was friendly and team oriented. We worked hard to reach targets and our criticism towards each other was always of a constructive nature. In fact we could freely discuss work related matters and find solutions to the difficult situations that arose from time to time. We were all hard workers, responsible for our actions and were capable to work well without supervision. As a team, we used to give feedback to the teacher who was responsible who helped us finalise our ideas about any particular activity. Before implementing a school activity every representative from each class used to discuss the matter with her classmates so as to ensure fairness with everyone. Furthermore, working with such a great team and with an understanding teacher was of utmost pleasure and satisfaction. We organised many other activities such as hot dog day, yogurt day and car wash day where parents contributed by bringing their cars to school on a Saturday morning and the students had to was h the cars. These activities were very instrumental in raising funds for the school. We also organised a play for Prize Day and decorated the school hall for that particular occasion. I also had to give a helping hand in the layout of the invites. I remember, Prize Day was held in March and we were awarded a prize for loyalty, teamwork and sense of responsibility. This was the result of the hard work and sense of commitment. We provided a good overall performance in our team and we built a good rapport with our teachers, assistant heads and the head of school. The school theatre needed continuous maintenance to be more welcoming for the students and the staff. So we tried our best to organise lots of activities to gain funds for this purpose. Unfortunately, this came to an end when the teacher responsible for our students` council was pregnant and she had to go on maternity leave. She was replaced by another teacher but things began to change very rapidly. The group started to disagree about lots of things being discussed as the teacher responsible was not doing her utmost to help us work for the school. I tried my best to get on well with everyone, however, difficult people tend to pose more challenging situations. The new teacher had difficult methods and ideas and her approach towards the school administration and staff was also different. Scheduled meetings used to be cancelled by the teacher in charge on a regular basis, due to other commitments, making it more difficult for us to communicate with each other. The fact that the entire group was bothered and cooperation was lacked it made me feel uneager to work and participate. I tried to do my very best to adapt to the situation. I decided to take action about the situation because the group was split due to disagreements. So I discussed the issue with the group and we agreed to talk to the new teacher about the problem. She tried to understand our concerns and provide a solution to our dilemma but it seemed that her ineffective management skills showed poor results. The school theatre remained in the same state as the school did not have enough funds to cover the costs for refurbishment. Reflection My own experience within the teams I worked for tended to have both positive and difficult times. These may be the result of the diversity of characters as well as the different approaches which one implements in order to tackle the various situations. In everyday life one comes across all types of circumstances and this also applied to me nonetheless. Looking at a glance at the beginning of my experience, when I was elected as a student council representative, I can tell that working with students and the teacher was a remarkable experience. This was because I could deal openly with all of them. Moreover, I was trained how to work within a group and to share ideas all for one aim. Later on, I was asked to organise and help out with the play for Prize Day. This was indeed a challenge for me because I had never organised anything of the sort that was so important for the school. It was my first experience. However, everyone was helpful and reliable and I learnt a lot of skills from different tasks. This was not an easy job and since I had to deal with other students and the school administration, it was difficult at times to handle their needs. Being part of a students` council made me feel responsible for the other students and one has to try his/her best to meet others` request in the best possible way. One could understand certain complaints raised by students whenever an activity was not very well met by the others. At the end, our group together with the teacher who was responsible for the Council tried to adapt according to the needs and priorities of the school. But as Council representatives we all worked hard to gain trust from students and the school administration and this made it possible for us to work hand in hand with them. We managed to build a good relationship. It is worth mentioning that we had strict rules to follow especially with regards to finance and we were very careful to choose certain activities that were educational and appealed to the school. We used to deal with these delicate situations in a calm atmosphere and we often tried to find out a win-win situation. The time spent working together was an amazing experience and our mutual support gave us a strong sense of unity. This helped us create a tranquil environment making it possible to increase productivity. Our effort was noted by the school administration and we were shown gratitude by being awarded a prize during the prize day. The goals we achieved and the positive feedback made us feel beneficial to the school and this gave us a great sense of satisfaction. However, this attitude changed completely when the teacher responsible for the students` council had to resign due to pregnancy. Another teacher came to replace her and since then things changed for the worse. Our work became more difficult since the new teacher was unfamiliar to our routine and we had to start from scratch explaining the whole process to her. We were encountering various arguments and although I never took sides certain unwanted behaviour left a negative impact on me. I was not used to working in such an environment and I could not concentrate in carrying out my tasks due to certain conflicts. The new teacher was not taking the council seriously. We met for a very few times and planned fewer activities than before. She created a sense of lack of collaboration and indifference within the group and the students used to spend more time arguing rather than working. The team was changing and I was not feeling part of them. I am quite a hard worker and I wanted to do my u tmost to overcome such a de-motivating situation. I did not want to hinder my sense of commitment as if I knew that I was capable of offering a better service. Our teacher was authoritarian and she did not accept suggestions from members of the team. In fact I was very surprised when she tried to understand our queries and was trying to do her best. However, nothing happened and our plans to modernise the school theatre remained unchanged as the school did not have enough funds for that type of refurbishment. The group split up and everyone ended working alone without any agreement. Skills Needed and Skills Reflected Upon The above description shows my first experience when being part of an effective group which came to an end. We had outstanding communication skills both verbally and non-verbally. Besides, our first teacher used to listen to our views and suggestions and this encouraged the participation of all concerned whilst the second teacher was indifferent to our ideas and lacked responsibility. The school administration seemed to have a sense of leadership yet it was always open to our suggestions each time a difficulty arose. The group was created with the aim of working for a common goal and we all managed to develop a positive attitude towards each other. This was accomplished since our main objective was to give our utmost. Participation, determination and enthusiasm were the ingredients that made the group functioning well. Bearing in mind the content level, the procedural level and the socio-affective level as priorities of our agenda, helped us to keep strong. Every day was a new challe nge for us and we never took each other for granted. The latter fostered respect among us. At first it was an effective group since goals were clarified and changed for the best of the group and everyone worked in a cooperative way. Communication was two – way, open and accurate expression of both ideas and feelings were empathised. Self-actualisation, innovation and interpersonal effectiveness were encouraged. (Comparison of Effective and Ineffective Groups-Lecture notes.) The strong sense of leadership skills could be felt as we worked and participated together to reach one goal and lots of activities were accomplished. It was important for us to establish clear goals and discuss with our superiors the issues related to our tasks. The relationships between us, the teacher and the school administration were a positive one. We were always welcome to bring forward our opinions, and our suggestions were respected even though they were not always applied. Furthermore, we really felt part of a team since our synergy was used wisely to enhance the smooth running of our s tudent council group. Thinking back, I now realise that although we used to negotiate well with the school administration, it would have been very relevant if we were offered some training during PSD lessons. Such sessions could have been targeted to tackle assertiveness as this would have been very helpful in the future and also to know how to deal with problems and with various characters where assertiveness was the order of the day. Therefore the skill to take unpopular decisions when these were really needed in order to be fair with the rest of the group members was of utmost importance. Unlike the beginning of the first group, when the first teacher in charge resigned and another teacher took over, the group communication became one-way and ideas were only expressed; feelings were suppressed or ignored (lecture notes.) In other words, I consider the group as ineffective. First and foremost our teacher was not open for discussions and she rarely held any meetings. This was a result of lack of communication. Personally I think that I have adequate verbal and non-verbal communication skills, although I still believe that there is always room for improvement especially in stressful situations. However, it was very difficult to reach a compromise within this team. Assertiveness was far away from reality. Our teacher’s leadership skills were very unproductive. As a result the team members were either passive or aggressive. She needed to organise herself and integrate us within one group since her system was drifting us apart each and every day, and eventually the g roup was split in two. An effective leader should possess the skill to inspire. Our teacher needed to be the person who should have encouraged us by sharing with us her enthusiasm towards a positive attitude. Unfortunately, synergy failed since she adopted a two ways and two measures attitude with regards to managing her students. It was her responsibility to support every member and create an honest and trustworthy environment. This would have improved our relationship, which would have in turn been possible to exchange ideas in order to identify and reach goals. Hard to admit, this change de-motivated me. The entire group was frustrated and adopted a different approach. Before it was more challenging and satisfying and I tried to do my best to adapt to the new situation. I decided to act on the new situation because the group was split due to disagreements. So I discussed the issue with the group and we had agreed to talk to the new teacher about the problem. In spite of these difficulties and apathy among the members I still tried to take action to re-unite the group. With regards to the unproductive attitude which was adapted by the new teacher and which led to unwanted circumstances, I feel that I still need to improve my self confidence when facing an unfair situation. Furthermore, our supervisor did not have the right skills to manage a group and to acknowledge our problems. She lacked assertiveness and she was not capable of addressing individuals. She could not delegate the right tasks to the right members and maintain collaboration t o raise funds for the school. At this point she should have held a meeting every month instead of cancelling meetings every time. It was essential to discuss and work on the positive issues and to improve negative ones as well as finding possible solutions to reach a consensus. Active listening which includes a psychological level by listening attentively to both verbal and non verbal content of another speaker and physical level were lacking in the approach adopted by the new teacher towards us. The physical level entails the word ‘SOLER’ (lecturer notes) S- Face the person SQUARELY, O- Adopt an OPEN position, L- Remember that it is possible at times to LEAN toward the other person, E- Maintaining good EYE-CONTACT, R- Try to be relatively RELAXED while engaging in these behaviours. (Lecture notes – Listening and Non-verbal attending: SOLER). Despite all the encounters with many people who may have different opinions and characters, I believe that one should still do his/her best in order to create a positive approach. Every individual should feel the need of contributing towards the creation of an enjoyable life within a community. This helps us reveal our identity and makes it much more possible to integrate healthily. Last but not least, although one may come across difficult people in life who restrain cooperation s/he should also keep in mind that these people are a minority. Mandela (2012) states that â€Å"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.† On the other hand Johnson (2006) emphasises that â€Å"to live is to communicate! All life communicates in some way. Communication is the foundation for all interpersonal relationships, and our daily lives are filled with one communication experience after another.† References Johnson, D. W. (2006). Reaching Out (ninth edition ed.). USA: Pearson International Edition. Sarah Bonello

Management Challenges and Concerns Report Essay

HR planning is the method that management figures out how you can move companies forward from its present setting to the end possible arrangement. Powerful preparation effectiveness will lead to the organizational direction developing the correct types and correct amount of people doing work that result in the employee along with the business having optimum long running advantages. Establishing purposes and following through by creating and executing plans for example staffing, appraising, coaching, and compensating to make sure that individuals with all the right features and abilities are accessible when and where the company requires them. A significant purpose of human resources preparation is enabling company effectiveness. HR sections should assess data that might need to direct any age categories for potential years. Businesses should know what way they’re headed. Demographic places likewise have consequences for handling human resources. Certainly one of the very most affecting difficulties for the resolution of business dilemmas is the quality of the man hired to function as the HR supervisor or specialist. For any HR member of staff, the degree of the human-resource employee has to be beyond reproach. The obligations of the HRM are really so huge simply because they reach every division inside the business. Centered on this, the HR staff needs to be certified and proficient. Not only does the HR employee from clerk to supervisor must be a communicator but additionally a great listener. As mentioned by Alvin Chan, with all the escalation in rivalry, locally or internationally, organizations must be adaptable, resilient, agile, and client-centered to triumph (2011). There are numerous facets to each HR job position, all which have to be nearly flawless. A business might have many legal conformity problems that the HR division has to resolve. The human resources problems are extremely complicated when it has to do using a sophisticated work business. Most companies exclusively employ one man as the HRM or professional who has to cope with benefits and payment, human resources management, labor relations, training, and legal problems. The EEOC is involved in over 81,000 instances of prices for different kinds of discrimination. Harassment of race and sex are filed most frequently. The turn-over of employee lends itself to wrongful-termination circumstances. The unsurpassed path would be to ensure  with employee practices liability insurance (EPLI), which defends an employee’s lawsuit. Conformity with ordinances is one the largest difficulties happening in work places. This occurs more regularly in small businesses than bigger due to the employee turnover in employees in smaller businesses. It’s a larger issue having a recently formed business or business as a result of the inexperience with national and state ordinances. A solution to the issue would be to employ a third party to maintain the company awareness of exactly what the rules and ordinances are or to keep the owner apprised of the modifications. Companies have altered the way they conduct business and provide a challenge for HRM to stay on top of. As with all the changes come new rules, laws and policies that HRM have to monitor and abide by. Numerous businesses have started to divide its human resources department into more specific subdivisions to help ensure they are still in compliance of new and old guidelines. References Bohlander, G., & Snell, S. (2007). Managing human resources (14th ed.). Cengage Learning. Chan, A. (2011). The Challenges of Human Resource Management. Retrieved from http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alvin_Chan Dreher, G. F., & Dougherty, T. W.(2001). Human resource strategy: A behavioral perspective for the general manager (1st ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Mello, J. A.(2006). Strategic human resource management (2nd ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Carlill V. Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. Essay

Facts The Defendants were a medical company named â€Å"Carbolic Smoke Ball†. Who manufactured and sold a product called the â€Å"smoke ball†, a cure for influenza and a number of other diseases. The company published advertisements in the Pall Mall Gazette and other newspapers on November 13, 1891, claiming that it would pay  £100 to anyone who got sick with influenza after using its product three times a day for two weeks, according to the instructions provided with it. The advertisement also claimed that  £1000 was being deposited into the bank to demonstrate their sincerity. The plaintiff, Mrs Louisa Elizabeth bought one of these balls after seeing the advertisement. She used it three times daily for nearly two months until she contracted the flu on 17 January 1892. She sued the company to recover the money promised in the advertisement. Procedural history Appeal from decision of Hawkins J. wherein he held that the plaintiff, Ms. Carlill was entitled to recover  £100. Issue: Does an advertisement to the general public promising to pay money to anyone who does something create a binding contract between the parties? Arguments The Defendant argued that there was no contract between it and that there was no acceptance of its offer. So the contract was too vague to be enforced, there was no way to check the conditions were met, you cannot contract with everybody and the timeframe was not specified. Also the acceptance had not been communicated to the offeror. And the last argument was that there was no consideration: nudum pactum. The plaintiff’s argument was that she just followed the constructions. The advertisement was also an offer were under an obligation to fulfil because it was published so it would be read and abided. The promise was also not vague . Judgment The court rejected both arguments of the company, ruling that the advertisement was an offer of a unilateral contract between the Carbolic Smoke Ball Company and anyone who satisfies the conditions set out in the  advertisement. According to the judgment of lord justice Lindley, â€Å"†¦the person who makes the offer shows by his language and from the of the transaction that he does not expect and does not require notice of the acceptance apart from notice of the performance.† The advertisement was an express promise to pay 100 pounds to anyone who contracts flu after using the ball three times daily for two weeks. Also the ad was not a mere puff: â€Å" 1000 is deposited with the Alliance Bank, showing our sincerity in the matter† , which is a proof of sincerity to pay. The promise is binding even though not made particular, a unilateral offer. The advertisement is not so vague that it cannot be construed as a promise because the words can be reasonably construed . Notification of acceptance The notification of the acceptance need not precede the performance- â€Å" this offer is a continuing offer†. If notice of acceptance is required, the person who makes offer gets the notice of acceptance contemporaneously with the notice of the performance of the condition. Also when there is an offer to the world at large, acceptance is legally valid when the offeree communicates to the offeror notice of performance of the specified conditions. This means acceptance is not legally valid when notification of the performance of the specified conditions does not occur. Consideration There was consideration in this case for two reasons: first reason is that the carbolic received a benefit. In the sales directly beneficial to them by advertising the Carbolic smoke ball. The second reason is that the performance of the specified conditions constitutes consideration for the promise. The judgment of Lord Justice Bowen : How would an ordinary person construe this document? Was it intended that the 100 should, if the conditions were fulfilled, be paid? The advertisement says that 1000 is lodged at the bank for this purpose. Therefore the statement was not a mere puff, â€Å"I think it was intended to be understood by the public as an offer which was to be acted upon.† According to the judgment of Bowen LJ, the contract was not too vague to be enforced. Whereby an offer can be made to the whole world and will ripen into a contract with anybody who comes forward and performs the condition. Notification of acceptance There is no need for notification of acceptance of the offer ( Bowen LJ differs from Lindley LJ on this point). Because an inference should be drawn from the transaction itself that if he performs the condition there is no need for notification. Consideration Lord Justice Bowel founds that there was consideration for the problem for same reasons as Lindley LJ. The consideration was using the smoke ball and the reason of using the smoke balls would promote their sale. And finally Lord Justice AL Smith decides on same basis as Bowen LJ. Ratio decidendi: In unilateral contracts, communication of acceptance is not expected or necessary. Advertisements of unilateral contracts are treated as offers. Where the language is clear that an ordinary person would construe an intention to offer, anyone who relies on this offer and performs the required conditions thereby accepts the offer and forms an enforceable contract. Held: The contract was binding and the defendant was ordered to pay the 100 to the plaintiff. Appeal Dismissed.

Venezuela’s Economy Oil, Political Instability, and...

With an economy dominated by the production of oil, Venezuela has enjoyed the highest standard of living in Latin America. In spite of its success in the oil industry, agriculture and manufacturing also play important roles in Venezuela’s economy. With this in mind, it would seem as though Venezuela’s economic state has flourished. Rather, it has suffered from the effects of political influence, corruption, and poor economic management. The distribution of wealth across Venezuela has caused the elite to benefit at the cost of the working people. This is mainly due to the economic and political structure of the country. Even with the plentiful resources Venezuela possesses, it is constantly being threatened by political instability,†¦show more content†¦Compared to other Latin American countries, agriculture has had a much smaller impact on Venezuela’s economy. With the emergence of oil in the early 1900s, the agriculture sector suffered from stead y decline until the 1980s when specific programs where designed to restore agricultural production. As opposed to previous methods of deregulation, extensive government intervention seemed to be the only way to boost overall agricultural production. After the peak of agriculture production in 1989 as demonstrated in Figure 1, new governmental policies caused the continual decline of agriculture. Due to economic priorities, the agricultural sector that once accounted for 22 percent of GDP in the 1930s, now only accounts for barely 1 percent of GDP. Venezuela exports a variety of agricultural products including: corn, coffee, cocoa, sorghum, rice, tobacco, sugarcane, oilseeds, and cotton. In the 1960s, corn surpassed coffee as Venezuela’s leading crop. Despite the production decline of corn in the 1970s, production once again increased in the mid-1980s due to new agricultural policies. 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