Introduce the telescope Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Introduce the telescope - Essay Example The computerized object locator is thus gives the IntelliScope Dobsonian telescope a ‘brain.’ This object locator is equipped with an LCD display screen that shows information about the object selected, including the type of the object, common name and magnitude. The computerized object locator works by first plugging it into the base of the IntelliScope Dobsonian telescope (computerized controller port). The object locator is then powered on and the telescope is pointed vertically. The user will align the IntelliScope on two different stars. Once the IntelliScope is aligned, the user selects an object to be viewed from the menu buttons. These menu buttons allow for the selection of the objects based on type or catalog number. Once the desired object has been identified, the user presses the Enter button on the locator. The LCD screen of the object locator will display arrow-based directions that help the user to adjust or train the telescope to the selected object. Once the telescope has been trained to the desired object, the object becomes available for magnified observation. This is a good telescope I can recommend to anyone. First, the computerized object locator has a big database that allows the user to choose from a wide range of objects to view. Secondly, by using this telescope, the process of locating and observing these objects is easy because of the computerized object locator. Therefore, the telescope can be used even by those people who are new to telescopes. Finally, since the telescope allows for faster viewing of objects, a user can view many objects in a given

Romulus My Father Essay Essay Example for Free

Romulus My Father Essay Essay Through the exposition of Raymond Gaita’s non-fiction biographical memoir ‘Romulus my Father’ it is evident that one’s strong culture and heritage can often heighten a sense of belonging within an individual group however in some cases can act as a barrier to belonging to society as a whole. We are shown Romulus’s strong connection to his culture and religion, which ultimately enhances his positive sense of belonging to his original heritage. â€Å"Many were Bible stories and their memory nourished his deeply religious spirit throughout his life. † The use of descriptive language â€Å"nourished† enhances to the reader Romulus’s strong sense of religion which is inscribed into him as a major part of his moral and ethics. However this strong connection to this heritage acts as a barrier for Romulus and ultimately ostracises him, leading to his alienation within the Australian context. â€Å"Even after more than forty years my father could not become reconciled to it. He longed for the generous and soft European foliage, but the eucalyptus of Baringhup, scraggy except for the noble red gums on the river bank, seemed symbols of deprivation and barrenness.† This quote explores the contrasting environments, showing Romulus clinging to old ties with his native country and then experiencing isolation within the Australian context. The description of the European landscape as â€Å"generous† and â€Å"soft† highlights Romulus’s obvious preference for his home country, this experience juxtaposes with the contrast of the â€Å"scraggy† harshness of the Australian landscape, ultimately showing Romulus’s separation from the notion of belonging within the Australian context. It is evident through the comparison of these quotes that Romulus’s strong sense of belonging within his heritage results in barriers for him in belonging within Australian society. Another example of Romulus’s isolation within Australia is obvious with his disparity with the Australian people. This quote highlights that Romulus is not familiar with the Australian land which ultimately ostracises him.

The Child Protection Process

The Child Protection Process The following are the skills needed in order to work with parents and with the family as a whole: ability to work in partnership with parents; ability to be honest and open even when the information you have to share is unpleasant or painful; ability to communicate with adults; ability to negotiate; ability to provide counselling, warmth, empathy, understanding; ability to tolerate peoples pain and anger; ability to work effectively with groups. Two skills will be explained further. Starting with the ability to provide empathic understanding, this relies on the ability of the worker to imagine what the service user may be experiencing, relating it to his/hers experience. Empathy also draws on the ability of the worker to be an active listener. As for the ability to be honest, it is known that some parents are not always honest with social workers, particularly when there are issues of abuse (Department of Health, 1991a; Reder et al; 1993), but it is important for social workers to honest in all dealings with parents. Sometimes this is difficult particularly when sharing difficult decisions with the parents, such as the decision to hold a child protection conference. The process of child protection work is set out in the Working Together guidance (HM Government, 2006a), which is to be followed in conjunction with the Assessment Framework and any local procedures and protocols. Under s47 of the Children Act 1989, local authorities have a duty to make enquiries when there is reason to believe that a child is suffering or is likely to suffer, significant harm In the case of Bethany where a section 47 enquiry is being considered, a strategy meeting should be held immediately, involving social workers, police, and any other relevant personnel such as referring professionals or when necessary those with medical or legal expertise. Apart from sharing information, the principle focus of the strategy meeting is on planning. This might include coordinating with the enquiry with any criminal investigation, dealing with any immediate issues of safety, deciding what information may be shared with parents and whether any medical examination are required. When a childs name is placed on the child protection register, the conference will appoint a lead professional (usually a local authority social worker) and a core group, comprising family members and relevant professionals who have the responsibility for developing and implementing the child protection plan. This plan will be reviewed at further conferences, initially within three months and six months thereafter. Depending on the degree of risk reduction, these subsequent meetings may decide to remove the childs name from the register. Research on core groups has identified challenges very similar to those facing conferences, especially in ensuring meaningful participation (Harlow and Shardlow, 2006.) From their study of a hundred and twenty conferences, Farmer and Owen (1995) argued that the dominant focus was on assessing risk, with minimal time devoted to planning and little subsequent reappraisal. They expressed concern that plans often failed to offer therapeutic help to children or to address the needs of parents (including women subjected to domestic violence). More recent research has suggested that, although practical and therapeutic services are generally appreciated by parents, they are often not forthcoming (CSCI, 2006). In this respect, Scourfield and Welsh (2003) argue that child protection work is dominated by a neo-liberal emphasis on monitoring and exhorting parents to change or face losing their children. Despite these difficulties, and re-abuse rates of 25-30%, studies in 1990s found that in roughly two thirds of cases, childrens wellbeing improved while on the child protection register (DH, 1995). Failures of communication and co-ordination between professionals have been a recurring theme in child maltreatment scandals, but eliminating them has proved a daunting challenge. One major concern has been to strike a balance between spreading responsibility for child protection as widely as possible while ensuring there are clear lines of accountability. For example, there have been moves to make child protection everyones business (Scottish Executive,2002; HM Government,2006b). In England and Wales, s11 of theChildren Act 2004 and s175 of the Education Act 2002 created a general duty for a range of public bodies to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Working Together (HM Government, 2006a: 39-73) sets out various requirements for organisations to nominate key professionals to co-ordinate child protection work at their particular level (Murphy,2004), while the Children Act 2004, s12, creates a duty on professionals to notify any cause for concern to the information-sharing index. Training, especially on an inter-professional basis, has also been recognised as crucial to facilitating communication and co-ordination (Glennie,2007). Yet, despite the many positive developments in relation to co-ordination, the challenges remain significant (Murphy,2004). Different professional roles and training generate particular ways of seeing in respect of assessment and these are likely to be reinforced by agency cultures (Birchall and Hallett,1995). In practice, this often means different thresholds for assessing significant harm and consequent tensions when these views are not shared by others (Stanley et al;2003). Duties to co-operate have co-existed with increasing pressures on individual professionals and agencies and unsurprisingly, it has often proved difficult to engage those for whom child protection is not regarded as part of their core business (Francis et al; 2006). Responsibilities have thus tended to remain with social workers, with some evidence that other professionals may seek to avoid involvement in child protection work (Harlow and Shardlow, 2006). Inter-professional relationships are also affected by issu es of power and status and may be based on generalised or even stereotypical views of others. In relation to communication, there are two related challenges to be faced. The first is that confidentiality, which has both interpersonal and professional dimensions. Thus, individual practitioners must address issues of confidentiality in light of their relationship with service users, but professional cultures and agency rules will also shape what information must (not) be kept confidential. A second, broader challenge is to decide from the massive volume of information gleaned which items are to be exchanged, with whom, and in what form, something that ultimately relies on professional judgement but is also influenced by inter personal processes (Reder and Duncan, 2003). Finally, it should be recognised that all the above challenges can be exacerbated by staff turnover and by agency reorganisations. Reflecting the growing concern not only that resources were directed more to child protection services than to preventive and support services but also that there were weaknesses at strategic and operational levels about how professionals jointly supported children and their families, the government established requirements for inter-agency collaboration in the 2004 Children Act. Under sections 10 and 11 of this Act, the Director of Childrens Services is accountable for collaborative partnerships across agencies involved with the wellbeing of children to assist professionals to coordinate services focused on prevention and early intervention and, where appropriate, to plan and develop joint services. In March 2007, the government published a review of family policy resulting from an extensive consultation with providers of services, young people and parents to lay the foundation for government spending over a three-year cycle from 2008 (HM Treasury and DFES, 2007). As part of the Every Child Matters agenda, the government is aiming to address the imbalance in the allocation of resources between prevention services and protection services and also to develop a more effective multidisciplinary framework of professional skills to enhance the effectiveness of prevention services. Two broad aims are to develop the resilience of children to adverse factors in their family and social circumstances and also to address the needs of families caught in a cycle of low attainment. The goal is to increase the provision of preventive services but where necessary to require resistant families to use the services by setting consequences for parents through forms of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and Parenting Orders. The intention is to enable local authorities to use additional funding flexibly to develop services provided either directly by the local authority or through multidisciplinary settings such as extended school services or childrens centres for younger children. The policy review commissioned four areas of sub-review: developing preventive approaches, children and families at risk through low attainment; needs of disabled children; needs of young people. These policy aims will inform not only funding streams to local authorities, child health and education but also expectations about workforce skills developments (www.hm-treasury.gov.uk) Families say that they value the social worker who helps them find their solutions to family problems. This approach takes into account service users anxieties about sharing family information with professionals and harnesses the familys strengths to build self-confidence and more sustained solutions. The whole family approach, family focused and child centred is central to working with children and their families in a multi-agency setting. Social workers bring a broad knowledge and skills base and are able to move beyond functions into solutions. They need to influence those other agencies surrounding the child to adopt a more collaborative strength-based approach. An approach that respects the family but does not condone the behaviour towards the child or the childs behaviour is likely to enable the family to respond to early intervention and to take up services offered rather than being driven to use the services by compulsion. However, social workers cannot at times avoid compulsion, through either a child protection plan or court proceedings. Families need to know what sanctions may follow if there are serious concerns about a child that they do not address. Communication about options and consequences from the outset of intervention is central to good practice. Such clear communication is also needed for other agencies that may be involved. Families and children should not need to repeatedly share with professionals from different settings the difficulties they are experiencing. A key skill social workers bring to their practice is the capacity to understand the issues from the familys standpoint. Social workers need to take into account the impact of poverty, social marginalisation, discrimination and poor health on parenting capacity and childrens development. Social workers are the bridge to enabling other professionals to acknowledge the need for services and their responsibility to provide suitable services. Clear communication is a prerequisite to establishing good partnerships with children, the family and the professionals involved. Work needs to be planned around time to listen, time to reflect and time to establish relationships with the child and the parents at a pace that works for them. Communication means not only using language that families understand, so that terms familiar to professionals are properly explained and examples given, it also means establishing in what way they wish to share information. This principle needs to be embedded in the practice of all the professionals delivering services to the families. Some families may wish to use an appropriately skilled interpreter. Some may want to share with the social worker the task of making written records or completing assessment forms. Other families may feel unable to say that written records disenfranchise them because of limited literacy skills. Services plans should be transparent and should clearly set out which agencies are involved, what is being provided, for how long and what are the consequences of not using the services. Plans need to be reviewed regularly and families need to know who has responsibility in multi-agency plans to deal with disagreement, to account for lapses in service provision and to ensure that reviews are held. For families the governments proposals under the Every Child Matters agenda create the possibility of improvements in accessing services across agencies. However, joint planning and commissioning will only be effective if parents, families and children are consulted about what services are useful to them. Services delivered through extended schools and childrens centres need to be innovative and harness the skills of the third sector to deliver not only universal services but also services for children with additional and specialist needs. Social workers and their managers are well placed to drive forward more effective ways of working directly with families: the risk is that processes designed to ensure accountability will create unnecessary barriers for skilled professionals who want to work alongside families to support them to find solutions. in 2000, the New Labour government published the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and Their Families (DH et al; 2000). The Framework was to be applied to all assessments under the Children Act 1989, whether for children in need (s17) or where significant harm was suspected (s47). The Assessment Framework (DH et al; 2000:10-16) sets out the following key principles: Assessments should be child centred, rooted in child development; ecological in their approach; ensure equality of opportunity; involve working with children and families; build on strengths as well as identify difficulties; are inter-agency in their approach to assessment and the provision of services; are a continuing process, not a single event; are carried out in parallel with other action and providing services; are grounded in evidence-based knowledge. Any assessment of a child and his family which aims to understand what is happening to a child has to take account of a childs developmental needs, the parenting capacity to respond to those needs, and the wider family and environmental factors. Together these form three systems whose interactions have direct impact on the current and long term wellbeing of a child. The Assessment Framework represents a way of trying to capture the complexity of a childs world and beginning to construct a coherent approach to collecting and analysing information about each child. The Framework should be rooted in understandings of child development. Contemporary thinking about childrens needs has evolved over several decades and reflects a mixture of theoretical influences and evidence derived from research studies.Taylor (2004) identifies the following needs: basic physical care, affection, security, stimulation, guidance, control and discipline, responsibility, independence. As assessment has become increasingly rationalised, it has become more common to adopt a balance sheet approach, often couched in terms of risk factors i.e. the increased probability of a particular (negative) outcome and protective factors that decrease its likelihood. An important factor behind the increasing interest in parenting has been a focus on the impact of mental health problems, substance misuse and domestic violence on parents and, in turn, children. Research in the 1990s suggested that these played an important role in many child welfare cases, especially when present in combination, but that they were neither well understood nor addressed in practice (Cleaver et al; 1999). They are relevant in two main ways. First, background knowledge of the impact is an important factor in decision making and second, there may be particular implications for the process of assessment and how it is managed. While each of these areas has distinctive characteristics, there are also common treads. One is that assessment demands a careful balancing act to avoid over or under reaction.Thus, despite heightened risk to childrens welfare, it is important to recognise that those suffering from mental health and other problems do not necessarily make poor parent s, and that the majority of their children grow up without major ill-effects (Cleaver, 2002). An adult who violently assaults another adult in the home is, in fact, also abusing children who may see, hear or be aware of that violence. Hughes, 1992, found that in 90 per cent of cases of domestic violence, children were in the same or the next room. This indirect abuse, is a form of emotional abuse, and actually one of the more severe forms. (Bearing in mind that emotional abuse and neglect are closely related, we might also see it as neglect of the childs needs.) Children are exposed to feelings of terror, grief, impotence, and to the realisation that adults on whom they may rely for safety, security and protection are either, incapable of protecting even themselves, or, capable of dangerous violence towards those they are supposed to protect (Kelly, 1994:44). Since the implementation of the Adoption and Children Act in December 2005, the Children Act 1989 definition of significant harm has expressly included impairment suffered from seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of anot her. A crucial element of the Framework was to emphasise the interconnectedness of the three domains, drawing on the ecological theory of Bronfenbrenner (1979). In essence, Bronfenbrenner construes the factors influencing the childs development as a series of four concentric circles, which he refers to as systems ranging from the childs immediate environment to the broadest social context. The microsystem describes any setting where the child is an active participant, typically the family, school, peer group or immediate neighbourhood. The mesosystem comprises relationships between microsystems, for example between home and school. Finally, the macrosystem comprises the broader social environment in which children and families live, including cultural values, customs, economy and laws. Arguably the most influential theoretical framework within assessment and child social care more broadly is that based on attachment. Originally derived from the work of Bowlby (1953), attachment theory emphasises the importance of relationships between children and parental figures, especially mothers. Bowlby was particularly concerned with the negative consequences of lost or poor attachment which led to maternal deprivation. Subsequently, his work attracted criticism for its gendered assumptions and ethnocentricity, but having fallen out of fashion, attachment theory was rediscovered during the 1990s (Thoburn, 1999) and its importance was made explicit in the Assessment Framework. Fahlberg (1994) has defined attachment as an affectionate bond between two individuals that endures through space and time and serves to join them emotionally. She argues that the development of attachment occurs through a cycle of arousal and relaxation, wherein the child becomes aroused through needs such as food or comfort, but relaxes once these needs are met by the attachment figure. Repetition of the cycle develops trust and a sense of security for the child. Fahlberg also points to a positive interaction cycle, where play and humour make interaction enjoyable and mutually rewarding and attachment is strengthened. The longer-term importance of attachment is that it should provide children with a secure base from which to explore the social world and give them an internal working model for relationships based on trust. Although open to change through later experiences, these models exert a strong and often enduring influence over the lives of children and adults (Howe,2001). Needless to say, such processes do not always follow this path and, while a complete absence of attachment is rare, insecure attachment may affect up to half of the population (Howe,2001). Building on Ainsworth et als (1978) work, insecure attachments are customarily divided into three categories: anxious avoidant (detached), anxious resistant (ambivalent) and disorganised/controlling. Each is associated with specific attachment behaviours, such as the reaction to separation, and wider patterns of behaviour. Howe (2003) argues that attachment behaviours reflect how children make sense of adults both emotionally and cognitively and are typically adaptive responses to their care environment. Within assessment, therefore, attachment behaviours can give important insights into childrens well-being and development, while the theory may help to explain the factors that lie behind them and to gauge the potential for change. Understanding attachment is particularly pertinent when temporary or permanent removal of a child is being considered, both in terms of recognising the effects of removal and the importance of maintaining contact between children and birth family members including siblings (Sanders,2004). Information on attachment can be gleaned from interviews, direct work with children, from other professionals and perhaps most importantly observation, but as Howe (2003) warns, assessing attachments is a complex task that requires experience and cautious handling. Explanatory accounts of child maltreatment have emanated from all the major schools of psychology. Their primary focus rests with individual perpetrators, but to a greater or lesser extent they also address ideas of intergenerational transmission, examining the ways in which the childhood victims of maltreatment may become perpetrators as adults. Although they enjoy little support, there are also pre-psychological theories rooted in biology and ideas of instinct (Corby, 2005:156-158). Psychodynamic perspectives (broadly derived from Freudian psychology) emphasise developmental stages and the formation of personality as these stages are negotiated (Mc Cluskey and Hooper, 2000). In relation to child maltreatment, attention has focused on how a parents own childhood may influence their capacity to recognise and meet childrens needs, whether they have acquired a rigid personality, become easily frustrated or have difficulty in controlling aggression. This is evident in the case of Bethany where behaviour appears at first sight to be neglectful or abusive but seems in fact to be the result of genuine ignorance about the needs of a child or the role of a parent. Some adults may have lacked appropriate role models while growing up; some are very isolated and have little access to sources of advice. When there seems to be a lack of knowledge or of parenting skills, an appropriate form of intervention is education: the provision of advice, information, instruction or role models. Social learning theory focuses on how behaviour is learned through processes of observation, conditioning and reinforcement. In line with the theory, intervention would focus on identifying these patterns and seeking to modify them through behavioural therapy, perhaps by working on avoiding triggers for maltreatment or reinforcing appropriate parental responses. Throughout her childhood, Bethany witnessed violence hence repeating the same behaviour as an adult. A basic feature of anti discriminatory practice is the ability to see that discrimination and oppression are so often central to the situations social workers encounter. The fact that social work service users are predominantly from disadvantaged groups is unlikely to be seen as a key issue. However, what anti discriminatory practice teaches us is that discrimination and oppression are vitally important matters and, if we are not attuned to recognising and challenging discrimination, we run the risk of, at best condoning it and, at worst exacerbating and amplifying it through our own action. Overarching both the 1989 and the 2004 Children Act is the 1998 Human Rights Act which requires agencies with responsibilities for child health, education and welfare services to comply with the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights. Of particular relevance is Article 8, respect for private and family life. This Article does not give an absolute guarantee to family life and therefore to services to support a family to bring up their children. It is a qualified right, and the State and its agencies have to balance the childs entitlement to grow up cared for by their family, who may need support services to do so, against the duty to protect the child and, where necessary following a fair and transparent process, to remove the child from the family. The duty on the Director of the Childrens Services to plan with other agencies to commission and provide support services to promote childrens wellbeing must comply with both international obligation and domestic law to ensure that service provision is non-discriminatory

Essay --

Bonds and Equities Defining Bonds and Equities Bonds are certificates of obligation or indebtedness, issued by governments and companies to raise funds repayable at interest over relatively long periods. Equities are investments exercised by purchasing a share in the ownership of a corporation; and are more commonly called stocks or shares (as in the stock market or share market). Bonds have a very favorable relationship with equities. Historically, when equity markets fell, bonds had gone up in value, partially offsetting the fall. When equity markets rise, interestingly, high quality bonds also tend to rise, although to a lesser extent. Therefore for an investor with equity portfolio wanting to reduce portfolio volatility or make the portfolio less susceptible to a fall in equity markets bonds are the most appropriate. Bonds generally pay a much higher income than high quality government and corporate bonds to compensate for higher risk. Similar to equities, bonds tend to perform best when economic growth is strong with low stable interest rates. In such an environment the ability of these companies to pay interest and repay their bonds on the maturity date is greatly enhanced. [Z. Bodie, 2000] Investment in bonds and equities, usually via stock-markets and other exchanges for financial instruments. So-called "portfolio investment" is usually relatively easy to re-sell; hence this type of investment can flow relatively easily into and out of a country's stock-markets. This can lead to volatility in share-prices and levels of capital availability. What’s the difference? Equities are shares listed on the stock exchange. Their prices are influenced by the underlying performance of the companies, the sectors in which they operate ... ...easures pertaining to the micro stability of the intermediaries can be subdivided into two categories; general rules on the stability of all business enterprises and entrepreneurial activities, such as the legally required amount of capital, borrowing limits and integrity requirements; and more specific rules due to the special nature of financial intermediation, such as risk based capital ratios, limits to portfolio investments and the regulation of off-balance activities. [White 1996] References Z Bodie, A Kane and A J Marcus. "Investments". 5th Ed. Irwin 2000. E J Elton and M J Gruber. "Modern Portfolio Theory and Investment Analysis". John Wiley 5th Edition 1995. White L., 1996, "International Regulation of Securities Markets: Competition or Harmonization?† in Lo A. (ed), The Industrial organization and Regulation of the Securities Industry, NBER, Cambridge

Cypop 7 Essay

CYPOP 7 – Promote creativity and creative learning in young children 1.1 – Analyse the differences between creative learning and creativity Creative learning is about how children are actively involved in their own learning and their ability to make choices and decisions. This can be achieved by providing a creative environment, allowing exploration through play and praising the child’s creative efforts. Creative learning is about helping children develop imaginative thinking through exploration of materials, objects and problem solving skills like ICT. It is also about giving children opportunities to make connections between different areas and to relate to them. Some creative learning activities may be goal orientated like the goal is to make any painting they like, but the child will also be exploring the different colours given to them; to paint like colours can be mixed to make another colour. This activity will also help the child in other areas of learning too. Creative learning is about children using their mind to solve problems. Creativity is about risk taking and making connections, allowing children to explore and express themselves through a variety of media and materials. Like through dance, music, making things and drawing. A child being creative is linked to play and can develop through a child being engaged in their own actions and ideas. Creativity consists of traditional arts and the development of imagination and imaginative play, like role play and small world play. Creativity is about exploring emotions and expressions; also is about enjoying creativity and learning from the process. Creativity links to creative development areas of the learning from the EYFS. 1.2 – Explain current theoretical approaches to creativity and creative learning in early childhood There are many theoretical approaches to creativity and creative learning these are nature verses nurture this could mean that people are born with it or they learn it from life or other people. Some people believe that children will learn from watching other people this is called role modelling. Many may believe that creativity is a progress, this means that creativity will follow a pattern to make it happen, this will also help to build upon skills that will occur. Nature versus nurture is a debate in the area of psychology. In terms of children’s  creativity, some think children are born naturally creative, for example having a gift for music or having a creative personality. This is known as the â€Å"nature† theory. Others believe creativity is something that can be taught. This is known as the â€Å"nurture† theory. The cultural approach means that every child will be creative so many things will affect this. As practitioners you have to give the child the right environment that will help children to explore and be creative with how they want to be. Cognitive theories is when children make relations between different things, this theory look at how the brain puts things together, lots of opportunities need to be provided for the child to develop knowledge in lots of different areas, and so that they can draw on their own views and experiences. Some theorists such as Robert Sternberg and Howard Gardener argue that being able to make new connections and to create a drawing from them is a type of intelligence. The ‘Creative Partnerships’ programme was set up in 2002 by the government in response to the influential report ‘all our futures’. They use the term ‘creative learning’ to try and sum up their education programme. They believe creative partnerships can help free the creativity of everyone involved by engaging them in fresh approaches to learning through partnership. They feel collaborative working has these key characteristics; †¢ Motivation for learning †¢ Bringing the curriculum to life †¢ Greater involvement in decision making †¢ New ways for learners to engage in a subject The Qualifications Curriculum Assessment (QCA: Creativity, Find It and Promote It 2005), promotes creativity as an vital part of all national curriculum subjects and identifies characteristics of creative learning as; †¢ Questioning and challenging conventions and assumptions †¢ Making imaginative connections and associating things that aren’t usually related †¢ Visualizing what might be: imagining seeing things in mind’s eye †¢ Trying alternative and fresh approaches, keeping options open †¢ Reflecting critically on ideas, action and outcomes These characteristics and abilities have shown to lead to a sense of purpose, achievement of strengths, talents and interests, self-respect and a sense of belonging. 1.3 – Critically analyse how creativity and creative learning can support young children’s emotional, social, intellectual, communication and physical development Creativity and creative learning can support children’s development in a number of ways. Emotionally they learn how to manage frustration if something is not going to plan and they feel happy and proud and a sense of achievement when something is completed by them. Socially children can build up self-confidence by working with others or alongside them; to make something to share with everyone and the child also makes new friends. Intellectually children learn about problem solving, numeracy and developing their reading and writing skills. Children’s capability to communicate with peers and adults develops through creative play as well as their overall speech and listening skills. Physically, creativity can help develop fine motor skills by children using materials such as crayons, paints and sticking. Participating in movement activities such as dance or drama (role play) also improves the child’s overall physical development. Like during a cooking activity children are learning many skills through this creative process, they may feel happy and excited about making their own food. They are sociable by working with adults to support them and cooking for their friends or family members. By following instructions either written or verbal and measuring quantities they are developing intellectually. Knowing when to ask for help and starting a conversation around what they are doing and using can help develop their communication skills especially listening and taking direction. Finally all the mixing, chopping, kneading and picking up small cut up pieces, help the child develop physically developing the fine motor skills, hand eye co-ordination and building hand and arm muscles. The EYFS ensures that creativity and critical thinking are developed through play- based learning across the curriculum, and that children learn in an environment encouraging exploration and active and playful learning. It reflects the viewpoint that play offers significant benefits for children’s cognitive, emotional, social and physical development and is central to creativity.

Comparison of the lives of American, Chinese and Thai women

Recent decades have witnessed enormous and far-reaching demographic changes in the lives of American, Chinese and Thai women. These changes touch almost every aspect of life -education, marriage, divorce, employment, sexual behavior, childbearing, and living arrangements. In fact, it is difficult to avoid the media's persistent messages regarding the new woman.We know that women are entering higher levels of education in unprecedented numbers, going into professions traditionally reserved for men, delaying marriage and remaining employed after they are married as well as after their first child is born, divorcing at higher rates, and heading a greater number of households. It is not surprising to find these changes the subject of intensive study by social scientists, policymakers, market researchers, as well as the media. From the perspective of the individual woman, the creation of a family through marriage is a major event.It changes her relationship to the family from which she ca me and provides her with a new set of roles, responsibilities, commitments, and expectations. It is a significant transition in the life course, one that has historically marked the entry into adulthood. The marital behavior of American women has significantly changed in recent decades, and this change has signaled a shift in the relationship of individual women to the family as a social institution and in the way women organize their lives.To begin with, changes in marital behavior since the 1950s point to a significant decline in the importance of marriage in the lives of American women. This decline is being met with a rise in the importance of the primary individual. More women are expected to remain single throughout their lives, those who do marry are marrying later, and marriages are more likely to end in divorce. Consequently, women are spending a smaller proportion of their lives married. Delayed marriage is related to the increasing numbers of young women living alone.Howe ver, the majority of Chinese women, rural and urban, it is still within the context of the family and in their performance of familial roles that they are judged. A fine worker who neglects her husband and beats her children is a bad woman. A fine worker who neglects his wife and beats his children is a fine worker. There have been major changes in the family in urban China. It is most certainly not the buffer (or barrier) it once was between women and the state, but it remains the unit of consumption, the primary caring unit for the weak, ill, or elderly, and its proper functioning is still seen as women's responsibility.Here again, the rural family reflects the vast differences in China between city and countryside. Although it is no longer the only unit of production, that function in 1981 being shared with the production team, it still provides much of the family's resources, and much of that production is women's responsibility (Ebrey 1990). More importantly, even though the ru ral family is now a setting from which women of certain ages go out for varying periods of time to interact with the work world of men, it is still the natural habitat of women. Thai Family Law within the Civil Code contains many outright discriminatory items.For example, if a woman engaged to be married has sexual relations with a man other than her fiance, her fiance is entitled to terminate the engagement and seek compensation from the third party. An engaged woman does not have reciprocal rights. Similarly, if a spouse seeks a judicial divorce (as opposed to a divorce based on mutual consent), the husband is able to divorce his wife on the grounds of adultery but the wife cannot use this reason against her husband without proof that the husband has maintained and honored the ‘other woman' as his wife ( NCWA 1995).Currently the marriage registration system affords women no protection from bigamous husbands, and neither do they provide women with protection against sexual ab use, sexual harassment, rape or domestic violence (NCWA 1995). Domestic violence (especially wife beating) is major family problem in Thai society but it remains underreported because of the social stigma attached to the victims and the perpetrators. One study on Status of Women and Fertility in Thailand conducted in 1993 interviewed 2800 women and found that one-fifth (approximately 600 women) reported having been beaten by their husbands.The highest concentration of women who had experienced domestic violence was in Bangkok. About 13 per cent of Bangkok women reported being beaten regularly and 47 per cent of these remained in the relationship within a submissive role, neither retaliating nor leaving (Chayovan et al. 1995). Traditionally Thai customs have discouraged marriage at a young age and the impact of urbanization and socio-economic development have reinforced this tendency leading to an increase in marriage age among Thais (Limanonda 1992).The last four census figures indi cate that the age at first marriage for women has risen from 21. 6 in 1960 to 23. 5 in 1990. Nonetheless marriage is still the overwhelming choice with only a small number of Thais remaining single by the age of 50 (Limanonda 1992). The divorce rate is increasing especially in Bangkok where remarriage among younger divorcees is quite high. This increase in the marriage dissolution rate has resulted in a growing number of female heads-of-households. From the 1994 Household Survey, out of the total 15. 8 million households counted, 3.2 million households (about 20. 1 per cent) were headed by women and these households had an average of 3. 2 family members. The average age of these women heads was 51 years old. The low levels of education and income prevalent among these single female heads of-households signifies a considerable burden for the women involved since they would most likely be the major provider of the economic and emotional needs of their household members. Chinese and Am erican attitudes toward men and women differ even in situations in which sexual attraction theoretically should have no importance.Many American women today share in the public life of the nation. A majority of them have gone to school with men, worked in the same offices with them, shared identical or similar interests with them, and have even fought them on broad social, political, and economic issues. American women can count among their ranks doctors, lawyers, high government officials, professors, industrial and commercial executives as well as laborers, police, clerks, and members of the armed services. One hundred years after the Opium War only a small minority of Chinese women enjoyed comparable distinctions.They also could name among themselves workers in various professions and occupations, no less than crusaders against social evils deeply embedded in Chinese tradition, but these few women towered above the illiterate majority who either did not hear about the privileged ones or looked upon them with idle curiosity. The reason for this lack of confidence is, however, not so obscure. To begin with, it is connected with the fact that many American women who work outside the home feel defensive. This is one arc of a vicious circle, for the more defensive women feel, the less confidence men will have in them.Why do educated American women who have had lengthy experience in a man's world feel more defensive than their educated Chinese sisters who have but recently obtained equality and are only a small minority? The answer again lies in the underlying psychological patterns of the two groups. In the American individual-centered pattern of thought, sex, being diffused, appears whenever men and women meet. The boundaries defining when sex does or does not apply are simply not clear. Sexual attraction occurs without reference to time, role, and place.In the Chinese pattern, sex, being relegated to particular areas of life, does not pervade every aspect of l ife. Therefore, the Chinese male will react very differently to a show girl and to a woman professor. In the same way, the Chinese female will view different males from the standpoint of their diverse stations in life. To put it more plainly, for Americans, sex differences tend to overshadow situation. For Chinese, situation tends to overshadow sex. An American woman is always prepared to use her womanly charms whether her business is with a store clerk, her landlord, or her husband.She is likely to be pleased by any sign that her beauty is appreciated, whether the complimentary word or glance comes from a bus conductor, her pupils, or a business associate. Even a modern Chinese woman is sure to bring humiliation upon herself if she copies her American sisters in this respect. For in her culture, female charms and beauty are sexual matters, and should therefore be reserved for a woman's lover or husband, or at least for a man whom she might marry. On the other hand, the American wom an is, in male eyes, never separated from the qualities of her sex, even if her work has no connection with them.She feels defensive because the male resents her intrusion into what he considers his world, and he is resentful because she brings with her the advantage of her sex in addition to her professional abilities. The Chinese woman's sexual attractions belong to her husband or fiance alone. She can safely invoke them only in the privacy of her marital situation. But for this very reason, once she has achieved a new occupational or professional status, the Chinese woman tends to be judged in male eyes by her ability and not by her sex.With sex confined to the specific areas of marriage or prostitution, working females have no need to be defensive when entering into traditionally male activities, and males have no cause to view them as transgressors. A socially desexed female is just as good as a socially desexed male. The system of resolving sexual transgression may come to a s tandstill in the case of transgression that crosses ethnic boundaries. We have seen that sexual morality is embedded in the communal social order primarily of the woman's community.Matters are settled within the community, or between Karen communities with shared understanding of the processes for amending the breach. What happens, then, when a breach takes place with those for whom such sanctions are meaningless? The cooling ritual and subsequent marriage cannot be enforced. From a comparative perspective women in Thailand have suffered less discrimination than women in China. Indeed, gender relations in three Thai Kingdoms of Sukhothai, Ayudhaya, and Ratanakosin provided a positive template for the inscribing of a better status for women in the twentieth century.Even in this context the improvement in the status of women since the 1970s has been dramatic. Women's activities have expanded in all spheres as a result of the economic growth of the nation and the accompanying social po licy initiatives of successive governments, academic institutions and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Religious practice has supported the participation of women in worship. In Thai Buddhism a child should aim to gain spiritual merit for his/her parents in order to demonstrate gratitude to the parents for giving life to the child.Sons can perform this act of filial gratitude by joining monasteries and becoming monks. This avenue is not open to women but the exclusion of women does not imply that men have superior status to women. Daughters have other mechanisms for repaying debts of gratitude to parents that are equally as valid—they are simply different from those of sons. There is a clear shift in the nature of women's participation in the national economy since the 1970s. Women have joined the wage-labor force in greater numbers than ever before with the expansion in jobs outside of the dominant agricultural sector.Traditionally agriculture was the main focus of eco nomic activity for Thais and women were an integral part of the agricultural labor force. Women produced a considerable proportion of family and national income from their agricultural activities and played significant roles in marketing and selling the family produce and controlling the family finances (Chayovan et al. 1995). The rapid industrialization of the Thai economy over the past two decades coupled with the globalization of the international labor market have combined to generate large numbers of Thai women migrating from their homes to other centers for employment (Mills 1999).Women comprised the majority of those entering the Bangkok metropolitan area as the opportunities in the service and industrial sectors expanded. Women were preferred employees for the new jobs such as clothing and shoe manufacturing, the sorting of transistors, the assembly of pocket calculators and the handling of microchips for computer components. Thai government planners note that in four out of seven geographical regions the net migration of the female population has been consistently higher than that of men since 1980. They predict that this trend will continue until 2010 (NESDB 1992).The majority of these female migrants move into the large urban centers, have no skills or training, many have little or no knowledge of city-life and even fewer have a network for social and moral support at their destinations. The economic downturn since 1997 has also demonstrated that unskilled women workers remain the most disposable workers. They are often the first laid-off and few have access to severance or redundancy payments. Many of these women are single-parents or heads-of-households with a group of parents or children depending on their wage.The social security system in Thailand is currently too weak to provide support for these women and their families. Labor laws that guarantee severance pay or worker's compensation need to be introduced across all sectors of the economy to ensure that these, the most vulnerable of Thailand's industrial workers, are protected. In sum, employment for women in Thailand remains concentrated in the unskilled, or semi-skilled sectors and also in the informal agricultural sectors. Thai women have made considerable progress in the last thirty years.This results from Thailand's comparatively equitable cultural traditions as well as the rapid economic development of the nation since the 1970s. However, certain groups of women remain at a severe disadvantage compared to men and consequently their potential to contribute to national development is often ignored or overlooked. The continued existence of these weak points, given Thailand's favorable economic and cultural context, suggests that many opportunities for improving the status of Thai women have been missed.As greater numbers of women enter the administrative and political realms and with the continued support of international bodies like the UN, fewer opportunities shou ld be missed in the future. At home, prostitution remains a long-term, growing and unsolved problem. Economic hardship remains the predominant reason for women to enter the sex industry. Lack of education combines with diminishing economic opportunities to create considerable incentives for women to become prostitutes (Cook 1998). Others are forced or lured into the profession by unscrupulous middle-men.Leaving their homes on the assumption that they will be working in factories, many girls find themselves tricked into prostitution instead. Some of the women traveling overseas do so illegally but the income they earn is generally sent home to support parents and siblings in desperate need. Needless to say the majority of these sex-workers work in adverse life-threatening circumstances. The illegal nature of the industry makes it very difficult to monitor numbers of women involved and the conditions under which they work.The work describes in detail a number of important changes in t he fife course of American, Chinese and Thai women. The descriptions of behavioral change are arranged in a series of specific demographic topics – educational attainment, marriage rates, fertility, etc. – and then supplemented with an analysis of women's attitudes over the last twenty years. All of these changes point to a rise in the primacy of the individual woman that is paralleled by a decline in marriage and the family.In general, these demographic changes have been driven by economic, technological, and cultural developments that have permitted women greater control over their lives. This new control is reflected in complex life-course changes that can be roughly summarized as a movement away from the orderly progression of the 1950s (student, then jobholder, then wife, then mother) to participation in several roles simultaneously. Works Cited Chayovan, Napaporn, Malinee Wongsith, Vipan Prachuabmoh Ruffolo. â€Å"A study on status of women and fertility in Thai land,† IPS Publication No.229/95 (May), Institute of Population Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 1995. Cook, Nerida. â€Å"Dutiful daughters†, estranged sisters: women in Thailand,† Gender and Power in Affluent Asia, eds K. Sen and M. Stivens, Routledge, London, 1998. Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. â€Å"Women, Marriage, and the Family in Chinese History,† in The Heritage of China, ed. Paul Ropp. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. Limanonda, Bhassorn. â€Å"Nuptiality patterns in Thailand: their implications for further fertility decline,† Fertility Transitions, Family Structure, and Population Policy, ed.Calvin Goldscheider, Westview, Boulder, 1992. Mills, Mary Beth. Thai Women in the Global Labor Force: Consuming desires, contested selves, Rutgers University Press, Piscataway, 1999. National Commission on Women's Affairs (NCWA). Women's Development in Thailand. A report prepared by the National Committee for International Cooperat ion for the World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women, Nairobi, Kenya (15-26 July), n. p. , Bangkok, 1995. National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB). Population Projections for Thailand 1980-2015, NESDB, Bangkok, 1992.