Sunday, January 26, 2020

Evaluating Personal Study Skills Education Essay

Evaluating Personal Study Skills Education Essay For this essay I will be evaluating my own study skills and identifying my strengths and weaknesses using a SWOT analysis technique. Once these issues have been identified any deficiencies will be addressed by way of a diagnostic plan. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and was created by Albert Humphrey at Stanford University in the 1960s. SWOT Analysis is an effective process for interpreting my Strengths and Weaknesses, and for describing the Opportunities available to me and the Threats hindering me. In order to be productive when learning study skills must be acquired. Study skills include such things as time management, note taking in lectures, concentration, memorizing and public speaking skills. In addition to assisting me to highlight the skills I need to improve and develop, completing a SWOT analysis will allow me to centre my attention onto the skills where I am already strong. Study Skills Swot Analysis Strengths Note-taking in lectures Punctuality Classroom discussions Researching Reading IT skills Weaknesses Motivation Making time to study Spelling Time management Procrastination Self discipline Presenting projects concentration Exam preparation Memory Work experience in the construction industry technical knowledge Impatience Opportunities Extra help from tutors Proof reading by graduated colleagues Use of technology such as recording devices during lectures Opportunities for personal development Job shadowing Engage tutors in providing feedback Threats Working late in my part time job can negatively impact on my studies Long commute to college can affect my time management Time pressure Study Skills Study skills provide a significant contribution to academic success and they are decisive tools for learning. As Devine, (1987) stated: Study skills encompass a range of coordinated cognitive skills and processes that enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of students learning According to Hoover and Patton (1995), study skills include the competencies associated with acquiring, recording, organising, synthesising, remembering, and using information. These skills help the student to be successful. Studying is a skill and like all skills it involves training and developing by using particular methods that assist the student learn, organise, remember, and apply information. According to Gersten (1998), a lot of students with studying weaknesses simply do not know the tricks of the trade that are practiced by more successful students when they study. A skilled student will use a type of cognitive learning rather than just learning from observing and repetition. Pressley and Afflerbach (1995) discovered several key cognitive techniques that successful students use in order to interpret and help remember information. Some of these were as follows: Overview before reading Search for important information and pay more attention to it Relating important points Use of prior knowledge Change the approach of learning when struggling to understand The reverse is true when dealing with students of a low academic level as they will frequently exhibit weak study skills. As they incline to adopt a more inactive role in studying and tend to rely on other people for example, teachers or parents. Studying needs both cognitive thinking, as well as self-management skills in order to sustain the students concentration, effort, and time needed. If these self-management skills are not employed it may be due to inadequate motivation. Study skills are needed for students to achieve academic success. Good study skills reduce the chance that the student will fail and enable them to make the best of what they are taught. To be competent, students must have a broad range of study skills that they are capable of using. Issues to be addressed Time management relates to an array of skills applied to manage time in order to achieve particular projects, jobs and goals. To improve my time management skills it is important I set individual tasks or goals and break them down into an action plan. An importance rating will be established for each individual task or goal and a deadline set (e.g. Dissertation to be completed by April 26th). This process will result in an extensive plan with a schedule of activities over a daily period. Many time management computer programmes are now available which I would find easier to manage. Once my goals and tasks have been set and prioritised time management comes down to the efficient scheduling of my time which helps me to keep on track and focused. Scheduling is the procedure of calculating the time available and planning how to use it in order to accomplish the set goals and tasks. With effective scheduling I can make the best use of the time available and gain an understanding of what is achievable in the time allocated. A leading cause of not being able to concentrate is not being interested in the work. If Im reading something I really want to, my attention typically will remain. Yet, when Im learning something that I regard as dull or tedious, I will normally find it hard. At other times my lack of concentration is because Im tired or a fear of failure. In order to improve my concentration I must improve my work environment by making it more comfortable. Distractions must also be shut out as much as possible (e.g. TV, Radio). I must keep a positive mental attitude for the task and remember my purpose for studying and my ultimate goal. Motivation is a complex field and self-motivating can be hard. There are basically two types of motivation, intrinsic (Doing something because you enjoy it) and extrinsic motivation (Doing things because of external factors like money etc). I can improve my self-motivation by changing the way I look at a task, and I can associate finishing it with something thats intrinsically pleasing. I will also supply my own rewards, and alter how I approach unavoidable tasks to provide more extrinsic motivation. When I procrastinate I put off things that I should be focusing on right now, generally in favour of doing something that is more pleasurable. It is normal to procrastinate on occasion. Yet, unreasonable procrastination can lead to feelings of guilt about not completing a task straight away. Additional, extravagant procrastination can lead to inadequate performance if the task is attempted without enough time to do it competently. In order to break this habit I will make up my own rewards for completing work and ask someone to check up on me to make sure I am carrying out the work needed. There are a number of tools used to improve memory, these are called mnemonics. Mnemonics are methods for recalling information that is otherwise quite hard to remember. The thought behind practising mnemonics is to encode hard to recollect information in a way thats a great deal easier to recall. The central idea is that by encrypting information utilising pictorial mental images they are easier to remember when you need them. There are three basic principles implicit in the function of mnemonics; imagination, association and location. When you put these three principles together you are able to produce effective mnemonic systems. To improve my presentation skills I need to address a number of factors. I firstly have to recognise what the audience requires and then I need to develop the content and deliver it in a confident manor to create an overall engaging presentation. Issue Personal Action Plan Time Managment Set individual goals and tasks. Schedule these tasks on a daily basis Motivation Set personal rewards. Positive attitude Late working hours Talk to my manager about changing hours Concentration Remove distractions. Improve study area Lack of work experience Apply for volunteer work or job shadowing Cognitive Learning Become less passive and more engaged in learning Memory Incorporate mnemonics into my exam revision

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Issues and help seeking behavior Essay

According to Fallon and Bowles (1999) the area of adolescent help seeking behaviour is an under-researched area. Since the cognitive and critical thinking of adolescents are still developing, their behaviours toward issues concern them may vary case by case. The purpose of this report was to investigate issues concern adolescents and their help seeking behaviour toward those issues, especially seek professional helps. The report analysis was based on secondary information obtained from various researchers by scholars. The participants in the researchers were students with different demographic background, such as gender, ethnicities. Fallon et al (1999) investigated the major and minor problems concerned the adolescents and their help seeking behaviours toward those problems. The major problems were identified to be more severe and would cause participants distress, while minor problems would not distress the participants. The participants were 1,022 secondary school students from Melbourne Metropolitan area, 585 of them were male, and 419 were female. Total 297 of them were in year 7 and 8, 333 were in year 9 and 10, others were in year 11 and 12. Their ages ranged from 11 to 18 years. Each of the participants completed a survey comprised of three parts to define the adolescents’ concerns and help seeking behaviours. The first part contained demographic questions. The second part  contained mainly rating and categorizing questions to identify the major problems of concerns, nature of the concerns, and sources of help to the concerns. While the third part focused on the minor concerns. The nature of the both concerns was defined into five categories, family, interpersonal, health, education and others. And the sources of help were in the domain of friends, parents and professionals. The findings show that problems concerns different levels of students were very similar. About 50% of the participants sought help for their major problems, 40% sought for minor problems and 25% would seek help for both problems. The problems associated with family and interpersonal skills were often identified as major issues. For minor issues, family and education problems were frequently reported. Therefore the adolescents would differentiate major and minor problems and react differently toward the problems. For major problems, females were more willing to see k help than males, but there was no gender difference towards minor problems. And males preferred to ask parents and rather than friends, while females were inversely. However, on both minor and major problems, respondents were preferred to seek help from parents and friends over professionals, this may probably due to the easy access to nonprofessional sources. Gim, Atkinson, and Whiteley (1990) conducted an investigation which focuses on the issues concerns Asian-American and the relationship between acculturation and willingness to see a counsellor. The study was down through 816 Asian-American students from West Coast University. 399 of the respondents were male, 417 were female. And 291 of them were freshmen, 191 were junior, 159 were sophomores, 174 were seniors, which ranged in an age group of 16 to 37. The survey questionnaire comprised of three sections. The respondents were asked to report their demographic information and rate the seriousness of 24 issues in eight domains of concern and their wiliness to see counsellors on these concerns. Among the 24 issues, the respondents scaled highly for issues like financial, academic, relationship, conflicts with parents. The results show that for those Asia Americans, they were most willing to seek counsellors for issues like financial, academic, career, but least willing to seek help about concerns such as ethnic identity confusion, roommate, and health. The respondents’ attitudes towards seeking counsellors would be affected by acculturation, ethnicity, and gender. Asian Americans with higher level of acculturation would be more willing to seek  professional counsellors. In a similar study, Kim and Omizo (2003) generated respondents of 242 Asian American college students from mid-Atlantic and Hawaii universities ,140 of them were female and 102 were male, with an age range of 18 to 57 years. Fifty-nine of the respondents had had sought counselling before. And there were mainly from China, Korea, Philippines, and Japan. Similar conclusion was obtained that Asian Americans who were highly adhered to Asian cultural values, their attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help would be less positive and they were less willing to seek counsellors in general problems. But the sample size of the Kim and Omizo (2003) was relatively small, which may not be a strong support. In another research Eisenberg, Golverstein and Gol lust (2007) investigated the help-seeking behaviour and access to mental health service. The participants are students from Midwestern, public university. The initial sample size was 5,021 students aged above 18 years. And 2,495 were undergraduates, the remaining were graduate and professional students. Since the survey was web-based, total 2,785 students completed the survey and their demographic profile was similar to national student population. The survey used Patient Health Questionnaire-9(PHQ-9) as the key measure to identify the symptoms of depression. The result shows that 15% of Students obtained psychotherapy or psychotropic medication. About 50% respondents aware that there was free counselling service on campus and where to access the mental health care. Among participants who experienced major depression, only 36% received treatment which demonstrated a low level usage of cheap university medical service. For students who did not seek help, they often held the perception that stress was normal in school, or did not realise there is a need, or having the thou ght that problems would get better as time goes by. Limitations of the research include the reliability of web survey results and the survey ignored the informal sources of help like friends and family. The investigations above all show that female is more open to seek help for issues concerns them, however, comes to the issue of dating violence, male perpetrators and victims were more likely to seek help than female (Ashley & Foshee, 2005). Ashley et al investigated the adolescents’ help-seeking behaviour and helping sources when experienced of dating violence. The analysis was based on secondary data collected in a longitudinal study of adolescent dating violence. A sample size of 365 out  of 1814 survey participants collected in 1996 was chosen in their investigation. There were 225 dating violence victims and 140 perpetrators and all the participants were public school students from rural North Carolina country. The results show that over 60% respondents did not seek help for dating violence, especially perpetrators. Amon g those who sought help, friends and family members were more frequently chosen as their help sources than professionals. But males were more willing to seek professional help than females. The possible reasons are higher social acceptance to male hitting female than female hitting male and male will cause more serious and dangerous consequences in the dating violence than female. The findings also demonstrate that older perpetrators were more likely to seek help than younger ones. Researchers suggested that as the adolescent mature, they may have in-depth cognitive on dating violence and the potential consequences of their behaviour which compelling them to seek help. In conclusion, issues concerns or distress adolescents will vary due to their levels of education, gender, ethicises, age, nationality. And adolescents’ issues usually fall in the domains of family, interpersonal, education, and health. Most of them are not willing to seek help, especially male. But for certain issues, like dating violence, male are more willing to seek help. Easy accessibility made informal sources of help like friends and family common and popular than professional counsellors when adolescents experienced psychological issues. The other reasons cause low frequency of counselling professional help will be like social norms, lack cognition or unaware of benefits from professional help. So the society should promote more benefits of professional counselling and increase the acceptance of it. For adolescents, they are still at growing stage, abilities like perceptions, cognitions, abstract thinking are also developing. It is very important to guide them have a positive thinking of seeking professional help when facing issues concern them, in the end, may also help them develop a positive attitudes in their lives. References Ashley, O. S., & Foshee, V. A. (2005). Adolescent help-seeking for dating violence:prevalence, sociodemographic correlates, and sources of help_. Journal of Adolescent Health 36,_ 25-31. Eisenberg, D., Golverstein, E., & Gollust, E. (2007). Help-seeking and access to mental health care in a university student population. _Medical Care. 45 (7)._ Fallon, B. J., & Bowles, T. (1999). Adolescent help-seeking for major and minor problems. _Australian Journal of Psychology, 51 (1),_ 12-18. Gim, R. H., Atkinson, D. R., & Whiteley, S. (1990). Asian-American acculturation, severity of problems, and willingness to see a counselor. _Journal of Counseling Psychology, 37 (3)_, 281-285. Kim, B. S., & Omizo, M. M. (2003). Asian culture values, attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, and willingness to seek a counsellor. _THE COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGIST, 31 (3),_ 343-361.

Friday, January 10, 2020

The Tried and True Method for 4th Grade Essay Writing Samples in Step by Step Detail

The Tried and True Method for 4th Grade Essay Writing Samples in Step by Step Detail We've got all been through the struggles of needing to think seriously of what things to write about a topic our teachers wanted us to write. There are a lot more sheets such as these in Scholastic Printables. Attempt to maintain a hard copy of a dictionary in the home and allow it to be interactiveallow your kid to dog-ear and doodle on the pages. All at once, this can look like plenty of weight on 9-10 year-old 4th graders. Describe how you believe you've matured in the past calendar year. Beginning a routine of very good preparation for tests and very good homework habits will let your child deal with the exam period better. In the event that you or your kid is trying hard to cope with many things, write a list and go week by week or maybe a day or two at one time. The Chronicles of 4th Grade Essay Writing Samples Essay writing can be rather a challenge. Just open our English essay exa mple and discover out what's written in an essay and the way that it is written. An essay has to be composed of an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Our essay writing worksheets below give very good practice with distinctive forms of essay writing. The writing worksheets on this page will allow you to receive all the writing practice that you require. To structure an essay, you have to simply follow the above mentioned format. Creative essays should have a topic. Essay writing examples in doc format like the ones given may help lead you in writing a superior composition. All About 4th Grade Essay Writing Samples Writing is given much value in school since it is the bedrock of the other subjects too. Students have to compose essays based on the teacher's instructions or their preferred style in writing. They lead busy lives and often forget about an upcoming deadline. They also used the debate section of the online issues. The Facilitator Guide was made to be employed by means of an administrator, coach or lead teacher to be able to train others in the usage of the FSA writing rubrics to support students' writing. What would force you to love Education. The 4th grade writing curriculum contains a huge selection of concepts. You need to understand how to compose an effective essay as it is a typical foundation for a student's grade. Instead, students should concentrate on the skills that the exam would like them to demonstrate. The student has used a crystal clear and practical structure to organize their work, together with presented coherent opinions. What the In-Crowd Won't Tell You About 4th Grade Essay Writing Samples Evidence in writing works precisely the same way. Narratives are largely fiction and non-fiction. Writing narratives may also be very fun for students. Quarterly pest control services are intended to keep certain pests away from the lawn and shrubs around your house or business. In addition, a customer may ask the writer to submit part of the job for review and, if needed, ask them to make corrections. Thirdly, you need to ensure the truth of writing. Key Pieces of 4th Grade Essay Writing Samples What all you will need is getting the assistance from a specialist and EssaysChief is going to be the expert that you seek out. Despite the fact that you pay for homework, we provide those options free of charge. Observe that the objective of a persuasive speech is like the purpose for writing an argumentative or persuasive essaythe organizational structure and sort of data in a persuasive speech would be. These assessments incorporate a couple pieces of text that are connected by means of a theme.