A Review of Potential Teacher Development Opportunities

TABLE OF CONTENT Topics Page Numbers 1 A Review of Potential Teacher Development Opportunities in Improving Literacy Skills of EAL Pupils Introduction This evaluative essay focuses on reviewing teacher professional development strategies in using assessment for learning (AfL) to improve English as an additional language (EAL) for primary pupils in England.Teaching is a difficult job. Improvement and constant development are therefore necessary to ease the burden of hardworking teachers. As a result, teacher professional development is a mandatory requirement in many jurisdictions (Wiliam, 2011). Shimahara (1998) stated that teacher professional development is a typical concern in industrialized countries because it is the key to improving teaching. However, William (2011) mentioned that teachers feel inundated as they are continuously ‘bombarded’ with innovative strategies to increase their working efficiency.Keeping teacher professional development in mind, the focus he re also relates to the teaching and learning of English as an additional language. Globalisation plays a major role in stressing equal opportunities and social equity for all learners. Due to the long tradition of migration trends across the globe, the international concerns also encompass of contextualise social justice for multi-lingual learners (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). To highlight this matter, a statistic from the Department for Education in 2011 shows an increased in the number of ethnic minority pupils in English state funded primary schools (DfE, 2011).This reflects the circumstance of England primary schools where pupils whose first language is other than English has increased in number. The urgency of this matter is supported by Ofsted (2012) by stating that English has a momentous position in the school curriculum. Thus, teachers’ 2 strategies to tackle this situation become the centre of attention. Where the English language has served as a lingua franca for ethni c minority pupils in England, literacy skills play an important role in their academic and everyday routines as well.By putting forward the two important aspects of this essay; teacher professional development and EAL in primary schools, it is only necessary to mention the relevance of combining both of these aspects in a topic for discussion. With all due respect to other core subjects in the curriculum, the reality of teaching as a difficult job and a statement made by National Association for Language Development in Curriculum (NALDIC, 2009:1) on EAL that it is a ‘very complex phenomenon’, seem to have formidable implications for teacher professional development.Educational reforms such as curriculum reform, does not guarantee necessary changes in classroom practices. It is well known that how a subject is taught wins over what is taught, hence ‘pedagogy trumps curriculum’ (Wiliam, 2011:13). Therefore, when curriculum frameworks only work as far as guidi ng teachers in dealing with EAL, thus assessment for learning (AfL) is then best integrated in pedagogy to further develop the practice of serving teachers and raise pupils’ achievements. 3English as an Additional Language Classrooms in England According to a brief description by NALDIC (2011), there are over a million bilingual pupils participating in teaching and learning contexts in United Kingdom. According to statistics from Department for Education and Skills (DfES, 2006a:8), there has been an increased of ethnic minority pupils in primary schools from 18. 3% in 2004 to 19. 3% in 2005 and then reaching 20. 6% in 2006. Each of these pupils enters school communities with minority language that is not English as their mother tongue language.It is stated by Hughes (2002) that teachers need to consider pupils’ diverse culture to establish learning environments that are meaningful. It is important that teachers attend to their learning needs in order to achieve teachin g goals. The diversity in culture that may cause challenges in pupils’ learning according to Hughes (2002) includes the kind of spoken language use by them outside of school context such as at home. English as an Additional Language (EAL) according to Davison (2007) refers to ethnic minority pupils who are perceived as to needing support with their English development.These pupils possess language other than English (LOTE) as their mother tongue language. The terminology of English as a Second Language (ESL) is also commonly used by many researchers and teachers to identify these LOTE pupils. However, there has been a rise of issues about the usage of ESL as a term in pedagogy hence, the term EAL is said to be a more appropriate term to be used as it suits the context where the English language abilities of bilingual or multi-lingual pupils are multi-leveled (Davison, 2007).These issues revolve around the fact that LOTE pupils should not all be assumed to take English languag e as their second language. These pupils can be 4 fluent in speaking and writing in their mother tongue language but not in English language, or it can be vice versa (NALDIC, 2009). On the other hand, these pupils can be more fluent and able to socialise with their schoolmates in English language informally, but not be able to engage in academic writing and meet the requirement of the national standards.Cummins’ (1979) distinction between Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) and Cognitive and Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) as cited in DfES training toolkit programme (DfES, 2006b) shows that communicative or conversational skills (BICS) of pupils usually develop first in verbal exchanges context before they develop their cognitive (thinking and learning skills) and academic languages (CALP). In general, it takes two to three years for upils to be fluent in English as an additional language and an average of five to seven and even ten years for bilingual pupils to be competent in cognitive and academic domains. Essentially, EAL teachers need to know that only by pupils achieving development in both of their cognitive and academic language can they contribute to their academic success (DfES, 2006b). In an actual fact, how successful is the teaching and learning of English language subject in England primary schools?According to inspections done by Ofsted from April 2008 until March 2011 in over 133 primary schools, the report highlights the finding that primary schools have less improvements in English attainments in comparison to secondary schools (Ofsted, 2012). The problems listed are encompassed of having fewer pupils achieving national expectations in reading, and quality in teaching writing is varied such that less efforts were given in spelling and handwriting. Slower improvements in primary schools are then linked to the fact that there is a lack of specialists present in the teaching and learning context.Although, due to 5 inspect ions done by Ofsted consist of individuals, there might be biased element involve in the evaluation. Nonetheless, Therefore, I do believe there should be more researches focusing on the competences of teachers through teacher training programmes and continuing professional development. Relevance of Formative Assessment in EAL â€Å"Sensitive formative assessment of pupils’ classroom performance demands a high level of teacher awareness of pupil needs†¦teachers need to take account†¦the even more complex and less ‘visible’ aspects of language use. (NALDIC, 2003: 1) I can relate to the above quoted statement by NALDIC (2003) where teachers are required to carefully plan formative assessment for pupils’ learning by considering the complexity of language education especially EAL. According to Wiliam (2011), there has been a lack of researches done for teacher professional development. Learning styles, educational neuroscience and content area knowle dge are the common areas included in teacher professional development. Thus, why focus on formative assessment in this context?Getting into the basic details of understanding assessment, Green and Johnson (2010:14) define assessment as more than just tests and quizzes for the purpose of grading. Furthermore, assessment is viewed as a mix of methods to implement before, during and after lessons by taking advantage and making good use of pupils’ former or current knowledge to enhance learning. From the definition itself, they feasibly elaborated three main purposes of assessment 6 based on occurrence of the instructions.Diagnostic assessment happens before teaching, formative assessment (assessment for learning) happen during teaching and summative assessment (assessment of learning) happens after teaching (Green and Johnson, 2010). Thus, the terms diagnostic, formative and summative can be seen as defining the functions or purposes of the wide range of assessments. Black, Harr ison, Lee, Marshall and Wiliam (2003:31) mentioned that there are four ways of assessing pupils; questioning or classroom dialogue, feedback or feed-forward, self and peer-assessment, and formative use of summative tests.The relevance of focusing on formative assessment is due to its compatibility alongside many other aspects that contribute to pupils’ achievements (such as age, abilities and multileveled language). NALDIC (2003) agrees on the insufficiency of only using National Curriculum English and thus resulted in Assessment for learning (AfL) which is synonymous to formative assessment, to be used on a daily instructional basis (NALDIC, 2009). According to Stiggins (2005) as cited in Wiliam (2011), Assessment for learning exists throughout the process of pupils’ learning.AfL provides pupils with information of their learning progress through feedback as evidence and at the same time, assist pupils on how to improve and meet achievement standards. NALDIC Formative descriptors consist of assessment framework to assist teachers on day-to-day methods or provide stages for diagnosing pupils’ progress, and also to help teachers plan and integrate AfL into EAL teaching approaches (NALDIC, 2009). Issues in Assessing English as an Additional Language 7 We have only looked at the complexity of language in terms of its terminology.Davison (2007) mentioned that knowing what to be taught and learnt in classrooms must precede the action of assessing EAL pupils’ development. Other than that, teachers must also take notes on pupils’ knowledge prior to lessons to provide them with better learning opportunities. Shepard (2000) talked about two different problems in relation to teacher practices and pupils’ prior knowledge to learning. She stated that quite a number of teachers only documented results from pre-test and post-test assessment tasks however failed to subsume pupils’ pre-test results for enhancing pupils’ learning.In another case, a sizeable amount of teachers involved in reading and language subject had the tendency of using activities that acknowledge pupils’ background knowledge but failed to comprehensively integrate them with assessment. In practice, EAL pupils would have more predicaments in learning English as their additional language in comparison to native speakers of English pupils learning English. Hence, teachers are required to be more sensitive towards the cultural background and prior knowledge of these EAL pupils to help fulfill their learning needs.Language as a second language contains facets such as grammatical, socio-cultural and strategic abilities taken from models that can be referred for assessing. However, Widdowson (2001) as cited by Davison and Leung (2009) stated that the complexity of language is mainly due to the absence of comprehensive views and researches on the relations of these components, thus resulting in theoretical issues arising such a s on the ‘validity’ and ‘reliability’ on assessing criteria of language.For an example, in assessing writing, there may be a question on the validity of perhaps teachers putting more emphasise on grammar proficiency in comparison to creative writing. 8 Thus, theoretically, with the nature of language being multifaceted and the different abilities of LOTE speaking pupils in mind, one has to wonder how teachers deal with and monitor their development and progress. Of course there are NALDIC Formative descriptors which provide framework and guidance to teachers; however, there is the persistent question of whether or not this is enough.An experiment was done by Davison in 1998 (Davison, 2007) involving ten Hong Kong immigrant students in Australian secondary schools. The result of the research indicates that teachers of these immigrant students had the tendency of creating a ‘community of dialogic exchanges’ (Davison, 2007:542). Referring to forma tive assessment, classroom dialogue is one of the areas used to assess students to enhance learning, nonetheless, it is the way that teachers use this method that really determines the outcomes to be positive or negative for their learning.Here, the teachers seemed to acknowledge the background of the EAL students but omitted their learning needs. The teachers developed negative judgments towards these students such as perceiving them as depending too much on their mother-tongue language and having no motivation to learn and speak in English. Thus, this poor discernment by teachers as assessors should be a major professional concern. Furthermore, in reflection to Davison’s research, I would like to include some issues raised by Cumming (2009) in the Forum section of TESOL Quarterly.Briefly, Cumming put forward problems that relate teachers and assessment. Firstly, the problem is on teachers’ lack of knowledge on assessment, and also questioning their professional abili ties since there are still a lack of studies done to help answer how language teachers build up their competences 9 throughout their career. Secondly, teachers having a hard time in choosing assessment approaches that would work better in helping pupils meet the curriculum standards. Lastly, there are issues involved to how teachers relate assessment with pupils’ development and learning needs.As a result, the judgment skills, knowledge and abilities of teachers as assessors, are some of the many factors that should be considered in improving within teacher professional development. Teacher Professional Development: Novice to Expert? The demands put on teachers’ shoulders can be quite a jargon to others who are not involved directly in the related profession. There is even a saying that I was once told and here it is; the works of a teacher to others as they see it is only a tip of an iceberg.Throughout my teaching experiences, I slowly grasped the meaning of it as the reality of the profession manifested itself through the extra hours of marking, lesson planning and researching. During my earlier periods in the teaching diploma programmes, I believed teachers with years of school experience ought to master the techniques of teaching. It was my assumption that veteran teachers should outperform novice teachers. Nonetheless, with the passing of time, I have learned to believe that experience would only give positive impacts on pupils’ outcomes when the serving teachers bring with them developments in their practices.Of course the time factor contributes to teacher professional development, such as to give ample opportunities to teachers to experience and develop their skills. However, for judging on how good a teacher is, it does not entirely matter on the length of time the teacher has taught, but what the teacher does within this time that is really a concern. 10 Such as, how teachers develop teaching approaches on bringing in greater lea rning experience for pupils in EAL classrooms or setting.Referring to my old belief, a trite assumption that I’d probably make would be that teachers should just be left in schools for a period of time to eventually learn to teach better. Surprisingly, this assumption is proven to have a little bit of truth. Wiliam (2011) has put forward research done by Leigh (2010) on 90,000 Australian elementary school students. The research shows a small gap of differences on the impacts of students’ progress as a result from the teaching between veteran and novice teachers (see Appendix A).Hence, a couple of years advance by veteran teachers in the career put them at a slightly better teaching result, yet Leigh stated the majority agree that the case is not always the same. The attention of even on the tiniest bit of truth on the assumption that veteran teachers teach better than novices, is better turned to how they teach and develop their practices. That is, by improving their i nner developments; wisdom, knowledge, experience and polishing their critical judgment skills (Dadds, 2001).On the other hand, it is vital to realise that the whole process of developing teacher practices does not evolve entirely on teachers simply catching up with the latest educational trends (Wiliam, 2011). Metaphorically, it is not as easy as reading ingredients off a recipe book and lacking of involvement in the process of cooking itself. Putnam and Borko (1997) as cited in Shepard (2000) agreed that constant experimentation and reflection on pedagogical models in real classrooms context by teachers precede beneficial changes to their teaching practices, beliefs and attitudes. 1 Teacher Professional Development Strategies in EAL Looking from an international view, Shimahara (1998) stated that teacher professional development in every countries differ from one another in terms of its strategies. In Japan, the strategies of professional development encourage peer-development, mea nwhile in America; the strategies are focused on following paradigms for self-development. Higgins and Leat (2001) talked about effective teacher development by linking its models in a mapping diagram (see Appendix B).They attempted on linking models such as those that seek on transitional stages of novice to expert teachers, teachers’ professional reflection, pedagogical knowledge, subject knowledge, socialisation and personal explanatory. This goes back to relate on the previous research on 90,000 elementary students in Australia on the differences of performance between novice and veteran teachers (Wiliam 2011). It would not be enough to prepare individual teachers with only a specific skill in teaching development such as on pedagogical approaches alone.This is because teacher professional development is multi-faceted and the components are interrelated. Although there are imperfections on trying to map out the complex relationships of models within teacher development du e to many different meanings of the concepts in literature, however, they agreed on stressing the importance of teachers in having explicit work purposes (Higgins and Leat, 2001). Due to the major focus on mainstreamed classrooms in English schools, Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) therefore aims in providing all pre-service teachers 12 ith the experiences of EAL integration across all curriculum subjects (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). In my home country, the curriculum has a vast of English Language medium subjects listed for the majority local and non-native English speaking pupils. Thus, in the previous years, preservice and post-service teachers in Brunei had the opportunity to choose upon entering the teaching training programmes such as to specialise in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL).However, it is acknowledged by Cajkler and Hall (2009) that despite the urgency to meet the demand of increasing EAL pupils in England, the inclusion of EAL specialisatio n in pre-service teachers training programmes is out of the question due to the already ‘very crowded programme’ (Cajkler and Hall, 2009:154). In the initial training, the confidence level of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) was low especially in the fields of assessing English and teaching of literacy.The study also noted that the training provided pre-service teachers with less involvement with the national guidelines for assessment of EAL pupils; Language in Common. As a result, 45% from one hundred and fifteen respondents prioritised teaching skills for EAL as the most essential further training category for continuing professional development (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). Thus, assessment and language developments are suggested to be centralised in the teacher training programmes.Therefore, in 2006, the introduction of training toolkit for EAL Excellence and enjoyment: teaching and learning for bilingual pupils in the primary years (DfES, 2006b) to schools aims to raise understanding on EAL pedagogy and provide guidance on teaching approaches for bilingual learners. Then, White et al (2006) in their evaluation of the pilot programme of the DfES toolkit (DfES, 2006b) mentioned that there has been a positive improvement in teachers’ confidence and better comprehensive view of EAL pedagogy by teachers. 3 If I insisted on my previous assumption on letting novice teachers evolve to experts, Higgins and Leat (2001) pointed out that there are again stages involve in the transition to increase expertise. These transitional stages are not shown in the mapping diagram (see Appendix B). Nonetheless, it triggers such questions as to what extend do we measure achievements of teachers to confirm their expertise in teaching, hence, what makes one a teaching expert?Does defining one’s expertise help others to improve, such as through demonstrations of teaching to pre-service and post-service teachers? Changes can only occur and produce results when teachers are willing to first, change from within. Perhaps I can look at it from this point of view where education reformers provide new teaching models to schools, but instead, all these innovative strategies are making teachers feel inundated by them and as a result, changes intended never take place in classrooms (Wiliam, 2011).Let’s also reflect on the situation of the ten Hong Kong students where teachers assess them through classroom dialogue activity but misinterpreted in using that assessment to make judgments that did not contribute in helping them to learn better. As a result, Dadds (2001:51) emphasise teachers to cultivate their inner ‘voice’ and judgment or the ‘expert’ within them before accepting and using instructions from the ‘expert’ outside. Teachers are learners themselves. They need to learn on how to look at their rooted values on the profession first before thinking on improving and catering the learning needs of p upils.Suggestions to Overcome Issues in EAL 14 Other than participating actively in the schools or the nation’s teacher professional development programmes, there are also many other individualistic ways for serving teachers to successfully implement AfL in EAL pedagogical approaches. In the context of teacher professional development, it really depends on teachers to improve their knowledge and professional abilities; to trust their instincts, experience and wisdom in order to help pupils attain better in their learning.Also, it is essential for teachers to be explicit on the learning intentions before assessing pupils for learning. For lesson preparations, teachers in England are opened to a wide range of resources for EAL and assessment tasks such as from EAL publications, DfES toolkit (2006b) and NALDIC official website which provide great research platforms for teachers and tutors. Teachers can use information on pupils’ background and prior knowledge to adapt sui table assessment tasks in classrooms.According to Shepard (2000), teachers may even evaluate their own practices through classroom assessments by becoming liberal and open into discussing matters related to improving instructions with pupils. Another way of helping teachers to develop their assessment practices is by using video or audio recorder while assessing pupils as media to allow teachers to reflect and improve their approaches, as well as, to enable teachers to better understand the learning needs of their pupils.For peer-development, EAL teachers may make informal meetings with their EAL teaching colleagues to discuss and make amendments on certain assessments criteria (Davison, 2007; Davison and Leung, 2009). In addition to the issue of assessment ‘validity and reliability’, the matter can be partially put at ease if the assessing of pupils is done by teachers who know them very well. In addition, 15 teachers should be given great autonomy to plan and help the learning of their own pupils (Davison and Leung, 2009).However, if the case of ‘validity and reliability’ is over-emphasised, therefore, I believe that the status of teachers as assessors may be perceived as weak and the whole focus of AfL would be none other than a replacement of standardised traditional ways of assessing. As cited by Shepard (2000), Assessment Reform Group (1999) which consists of researchers from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, put forward their discourse to the government policies on three important aspects. Firstly, to amend inspectorate policies to help guarantee teachers as qualified assessors for pupils’ learning.Secondly, increase the funding on professional development opportunities for teachers. Finally, relieve teachers from the apprehensive pressure of standard examinations when planning instructions for pupils’ learning. Conclusion The impetus of this essay derived from the fact whereby is supported by NALDIC (2009) that English as an Additional Language (EAL) development is a rather difficult situation that gives impact to teachers’ professional experience. There has been a great emphasise on EAL in England due to its long tradition of migration and mainstream classrooms in primary schools.In relation to the urgency, teacher professional development in England becomes the foreground in dealing with the increasing number of language other than the English (LOTE) speaking pupils in state funded schools (DfE, 2011). On the other hand, the integration of AfL in the teaching of EAL is seen to be the best way to assist teachers in increasing pupils’ literacy competences. NALDIC Formative descriptors, established in 2009, serve as assessment framework that provides teachers with 16 approaches to diagnose the progress of pupils in EAL and provide them with feedback evidence to improve learning (NALDIC, 2003).Language education is very complex. The nature of language involves stage s of competencies and encompasses of many interrelated components (Davison and Leung, 2009). Thus, trying to figure out the abilities of bilingual or multilingual pupils in English language and which aspect or components of the language to use to judge their competences, is quite the phenomenon. Therefore, there are issues involving teachers’ critical judgments and wisdom whilst assessing EAL pupils that highlights the necessity of teacher professional development.According to Higgings and Leat (2001) by referring to Teacher Training Agency (1997), primary teacher training in United Kingdom provided a course where pre-service teachers are to obtain all the needs of professional learning by attending ample of lectures on subject knowledge, teaching approaches and a number of demonstrations on teaching. However, from a study done by Cajkler and Hall (2009), the result shows that there is inconsistency in the focus of EAL in the teacher training programme provided by TDA in Engl and.Time is an essential element in development but it is also relevant to look at teachers as individuals with different abilities. From my experience, some teachers could be talented and creative than the others, and some teachers could be more motivated. Therefore, arguing on which aspect contributes more in improving teacher practices is impossible due to the fact that it is beyond my capability for discussion and the limitation of this essay. In a nutshell, I agree that that teacher professional development is complex.Education reformers should not merely focus on one area of teaching practices but also to acknowledge other teaching related factors. 17 Nonetheless, Wiliam (2011) paraphrased Doug Lenov (2010) and stated that teachers have no maximum limitation of success and should think that striving for continuous development throughout their career is necessary. After all, teachers are not just essentially required to help develop EAL pupils into becoming capable learners in their classrooms but, they also help them to become capable members of the schools and cultural societies (Davison, 2007).Therefore, teachers’ skeptical attitude towards innovative strategies that would help improve their teaching has to be countered with other strategies that would prepare them with the changes they need from within. Iteratively, professional development for teachers needs to be guided with intentions that are relevant and supportive to their continuous professional development in order to face the continuous challenges of the evolving society nowadays. 18 REFERENCES Black, P. , Harrison, C. , Lee, C. , Marshall, B. and Wiliam, D. 2003) Assessment for Learning: Putting It into Practice. England: Open University Press. Cumming, A. (2009) What Needs to Be Developed to Facilitate Classroom-Based Assessment? In TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 43(3), 515 – 519. Dadds, M. (2001) Continuing Professional Development: Nurturing the Expert Within. In Burgess, H. , Craft, A. and Soler, J. (Eds) Teacher Development: Exploring Our Own Practice, 50 – 56. London: The Open University. Davison, C. (2007) Different Definitions of Language and Language Learning: Implications for Assessment. In Cummin, H. nd Davison C. (Eds) International Handbook of English Language Teaching, Vol. 1, 533 – 548. Norwell, MA: Springer. Davison, C. and Leung, C. (2009) Current Issues in English Language Teacher-Based Assessment. In TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 43(3), 393 – 416. DfE (2011) DfE: Schools, Pupils and Their Characteristics – January 2011. http://www. education. gov. uk/researchandstatistics/datasets/a00196810/schools-pupils-and-theircharacteristics-january-2, accessed November 20, 2012. 19 DfES (2006a) Ethnicity and Education: The Evidence on Minority Ethnic Pupils Aged 5 – 16.London: DfES. DfES (2006b) Excellence and Enjoyment: Learning and Teaching for Bilingual Children in the Primary Years, Unit 1, Planning and Assessment for Languag e and Learning. London: DfES. Green, S. K. and Johnson, R. L. (2010) Assessment is Essential. New York: McGraw-Hill. Higgins, S. and Leat, D. (2001) Horses for Courses or Courses for Horses: What is Effective Teacher Development? In Burgess, H. , Craft, A. and Soler, J. (Eds) Teacher Development: Exploring Our Own Practice, 57 – 58. London: The Open University. Hughes, P. 2002) Principles of Primary Education Study Guide: 2nd Edition. London: David Fulton Publishers Ltd. NALDIC (2003) NALDIC Position Statement on Assessment of English as an Additional Language. http://www. naldic. org. uk/eal-advocacy/naldic-reports-and-responses/naldic-briefingsand-letters, accessed November 21, 2012. NALDIC (2009) EAL Assessment Frameworks, Models and Useful Documents for Classroom Teacher. http://www. naldic. org. uk/eal-teaching-and-learning/eal-resources/eal-assessment, accessed November 21, 2012. NALDIC (2011) Bilingual and Dual Language Resources. ttp://www. naldic. org. uk/ealteaching -and-learning/eal-resources/bilingual, accessed November 20, 2012. 20 Ofsted (2012) Moving English Forward: Action to Raise Standards in English. http://www. ofsted. gov. uk/resources/moving-english-forward, accessed November 27, 2012. Shepard, L. A. (2000) The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture. In Educational Researcher, Vol. 29(7), 4 – 14. USA: American Educational Research Association. Shimahara, N. K. (1998) The Japanese Model of Professional Development: Teaching as Craft.In Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol. 14(5), 451 – 462. Great Britain: Elsevier Science Ltd. White, K. , Lewis, K. , and Fletcher-Campbell, F. (2006) Raising the Achievement of Bilingual Learners in Primary Schools: Evaluation of the Pilot/Programme, Research Report RR758 (National Foundation for Educational Research). London: DfES. Wiliam, D. (2011) Embedded Formative Assessment. USA: Solution Tree Press. 21 APPENDIX A A graph that shows the rate of teacher productivity in relation to t heir years of working experience (Leigh, 2010) cited in Wiliam (2011:28)

Big Families Essay

For any child I believe it is better to have a big family because you will have someone to talk to, someone to work with and new experiences every day. I know how you feel for example you might think a small family is better because you are the only child and you will get anything you want. So what is you had a problem who will you talk to if you had a small family .But if you had a big family you will not have just one person to talk to you will have many. Another example is when you’re doing homework and you need help who will help you? And if you had a small family who will help you if your parents are working. On the other hand if you have a big family you will have someone to explain your homework as well. If you have a small family and you win a prize to go somewhere are your parents do not want to go. But if you had a big family and you have a older brother or sister who want to go you will be able to enjoy your prize with your brother or sister. If you never been to that place you will have new experiences every day. In conclusion , I think a big family is better because you will have new experiences everyday , you will have someone to talk to and someone to work with .Please consider my reason when making your decision because a big beautiful family is better than a small family, think of what would happen if you where the only child you would be very bored without anyone to talk to.

Abnormal assessment Essay

Describe 3 abnormal assessment findings for a child, adolescent, pregnant woman, adult or older adult which indicate a nutritional problem. What additional questions should the nurse ask based on these findings? What are the Healthy People Goals for this population? How can the nurse promote health and adequate nutrition based on this problem? Does the nutritional problem have any legal or ethical implications? Adolescents Three abnormal assessment findings for an adolescent are as follows: malnutrition, obesity, eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia. First and foremost, being sensitive to the patient’s self-image can be crucial. Talking with them in a non-judgmental way can be key in maintain a great relationship with them. Once we establish a trusting relationship, we as nurses may begin to promote health and adequate nutrition through teaching methods. Even if the nutritional issue is outside our comfort zone we may reach out to another professional for guidance, such as a Registered Dietitian. If we didn’t have to take that big of a step we can always use not only our knowledge, knowledge of coworkers and other medical professionals, but also the books and other various tools that we have used on our educational journey. Discussing BMI according to the adolescent’s gender and age is an important factor in health promotion. One helpful guide to healthy eating is the My Pyramid. Physical activity with healthy food choices is a great way to manage your weight and maintaining your overall healthy body. Many adolescents like to skip meals or have irregular meal patterns. I know first-hand that we have busy lives but being able to be consistent and eat healthy or the healthier of choice of meals will allow us to continue to maintain a healthier body. A healthy diet should be balanced with adequate physical activity. I know some people work late nights so food choices are much more limited in this scenario. Choosing foods that aren’t high in fat will definitely help with nutrition. Sometimes people see themselves as being a certain way which alters their eating habits. You could have someone that is of healthy size and weight that may see themselves as being overweight. In their mind they need to lose this weight which affects them in the future. As they start to diet and possibly exercise more, their body may not be receiving the necessary nutrients it needs in order to maintain a healthy status. This can lead to malnutrition. Some physical signs and symptoms suggestive of malnutrition are as follows (Jensen, 2011): * Hair that is dull, brittle, dry, or falls out easily * Swollen glands of the neck and cheeks * Dry, rough, or spotty skin that may have a sandpaper feel * Poor or delayed wound healing or sores * Thin appearance with lack of subcutaneous fat * Muscle wasting (decreased size and strength) * Edema of the lower extremities * Weakened hand grasp * Depressed mood * Abnormal heart rate, heart rhythm, or blood pressure * Enlarged liver or spleen * Loss of balance or coordination Abnormal findings of malnutrition are as follows (Jensen, 2011): Mild malnutrition: 80%-90% of ideal weight Moderate malnutrition: 70%-80% of ideal weight Severe malnutrition: < 70% of ideal weight Questions: What have you eaten in the last 24 hours? Is this intake typical? What did you drink in the last 24 hours? What is your typical meal pattern? Have you noticed a change in your weight? Are you concerned about your weight? Do you think that you are too fat? Do you think that you are too skinny? Do you ever use diet supplements or laxatives or limit the amount of calories you ingest? What type of physical activity do you get each week? According to healthy people 2020 the goal for nutrition and weight status is to promote health and reduce chronic disease risk through the consumption of healthful diets and achievement and maintenance of healthy body weights (Healthy People, 2012). In regards to the question, â€Å"does the nutritional problem have any legal or ethical implications,† it would depend on the situation. If the adolescent was in the care of a facility and they were not providing the necessary nutrients for them to survive then there would definitely be a legal issue at hand. If the adolescent was experiencing this issue on their own as say a self-identity issue then it is more of an ethical scenario. There are various situations and there may be a different answer to similar questions or maybe even different answers to the same question but given to different patients. This is why we do the assessments. We need to gather all the information and implement the best approach for that particular pati ent.

The Roman Empire experienced a period of greatness before it Essay

The Roman Empire experienced a period of greatness before it eventually declined and fell in 476 A.D. Discuss the reasons for th - Essay Example Some reasons are definite and some remains a mystery. Among the greatest empires known is the Roman Empire and just like any other empire, it also experienced its rise, peak as well as its decline and fall. The Roman Empire began in 27 BC, coming after the Roman Republic which lasted for about five hundred years. It experienced great expansion and a burst of a rich culture. After many great years of rising to greatness in name and number, the Roman Empire began to decline. There were also a number of different grounds of its disintegration and eventually, its collapse and end. One of the supposed main reasons was the coming apart of the Roman Empire, separating and dividing the West and the East, which is also known as the Byzantium Empire. During its time, there were also more than a few civil wars that occurred repeatedly and frequently which caused disarray and unruliness in the people. Some of the Roman emperors like Commodus indulged in the life filled with immorality. He also p racticed violence, which brought about his murder and assassination. This resulted in the beginning of the collapse of the empire. The Roman people in the end lost their power and rule as barbaric groups and rebels in the North often assaulted and attacked. The Roman army started to become unfaithful and disloyal to the empire.

Financial Management week 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Financial Management week 5 - Essay Example By using the resources optimally, financial management can actually help a company to remain financial stable even during hard times when a firm is unable to generate sufficient sales. Cash flows of an organization are considered its life blood because without cash an organization cannot simply exist. It is therefore critical for every organization to manage its cash flow in optimal manner in order to generate sufficient liquidity to pay off its day to day expenses as well as debts. (Webster, Gans, Milburn, & Simmons, Jr., 2007) If cash flows are not managed properly, first thing a company will experience will be the constraints on its liquidity. Apart from liquidity, firm may also not been able to pay for its day to day expenses which could invariably result into its decline. Improper cash flow management may also result into non-optimal use of cash into activities which may not help maximize the returns to the shareholders of the

What actions might be taken by governments to reduce or limit price Essay - 1

What actions might be taken by governments to reduce or limit price fluctuations - Essay Example The paper tells that the price fluctuation concept is a natural concept, most especially for the seasonally produced goods. This is owing to the fact that applying the law of demand and supply for example in the [production of agricultural products, there will always be surplus during the harvesting time and low supply during the rest of the seasons. This means that the prices will be lower during harvesting, and then increase sometimes later when the season is far from harvesting. Thus, such seasonality is a natural aspect that the government cannot control. However, the government can intervene to mitigate or at least limit the rates of price fluctuations for the seasonally produced goods, through production planning that would ensure that enough products are generated during the season, which can last through the off-season and sustain the demand for this period, thus keeping the prices relatively constant. However, while this strategy may seem to be very practical, the limiting f actor is the perishability of the products. While bulk production can be done to last through the off-season and sustain the demand, how about the products that are perishable, and that cannot last for a few weeks or months without going bad? This calls for the development of a different strategy to address the price fluctuations. Price fluctuations are caused by a variety of economic factors that are at play at any one given time within an economy. New technologies could emerge that causes production to increase, or even the cost of production to reduce, thus causing a reduction in prices. Alternatively, substitutes can emerge which may cause the prices of the existing goods to reduce or increase, based on the nature of substitutes created. Seasonal changes in climates and other environmental factors may cause the supply of goods to reduce, thus increasing the prices of the limited commodities supplied. These factors create uncertainty in the economy, resulting in the prices changi ng with every change of the situation. Thus, measures such as importing in order to cover the deficit in supply, as well as improving the infrastructure to ensure efficient supply throughout the economy, are important strategies

Healthcare and Health Policy in Spain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Healthcare and Health Policy in Spain - Essay Example Second, public insurance coverage of the general population is over 99.5% where only few groups of independent professionals and immigrants under special conditions are not covered by law. Third, is how the healthcare system financed In Spain it is financed through general taxation. The National Health Service started in the 1940's wherein it is originally funded by social security, over the years they needed additional funding and this came from the general taxation. And now it is clear that 98% of the funding in Spanish healthcare comes from general taxation. The healthcare and health policy in UK is somewhat different from Spain. The comparison between the two countries is enumerated below. In the conclusion the writer will analyze the significance of having a good healthcare system and policy. In healthcare Spain is said to be much better as compared with UK. Spain has a public health system which provides free or low cost health care for those contributing to the Spanish social security system and their families. The system also caters for retirees and includes those from other EU countries. The country has an excellent system of private medicine and this exists comfortably alongside the State system with both operated so as to complement each other. The Spanish health care system is rated ninth in the World by the World Health Organisation - far above that of the UK's. In Spain there are two types of hospitals operating, one private and one operated by the state. The private hospital offers immediate treatment with patients being accommodated in single rooms. The state hospital offers the same convenience. Both hospitals pool resources to the benefit of private and state patient alike. Because of the comprehensive policies in Spain the health services for patient such as CT scan or laboratories are 40-70% cheaper than in UK. To equality among its citizens Spain has passed a law called law of quality and health cohesion. It means that by law the citizens have the right to enjoy the same health services including pharmaceuticals with the same conditions regarding social participation, accessibility, time, information, security and quality independently of where they live. And according to the ministry of health, this is their first great law of healthcare since the 21st century. In Spain there is a pharmaceutical policy that is now being introduced in UK. This has been existed in Spain for many years; it is one of approaching the local pharmacist for minor ills. Pharmacists have an excellent reputation for accurate diagnosis and effective treatment and are able to issue all but controlled drugs. In no time at all they'll have you feeling better. In Spain there are several ways to contact a doctor or have an appointment if you are sick. You can just text the word "Urgencias" to the telephone number 5013 and you will be informed of the waiting time before your appointment. This is very convenient especially for the elders. Another way to consult the doctor is thru the web. Healthcare system and

What was Race Uplift for African Americans Essay

What was Race Uplift for African Americans - Essay Example The African American population represents the multiracial characteristics of the American society. Earlier, the African Americans were forced to undergo a number of problems like racial segregation, discrimination, marginalization, slavery and forced labor. Earlier, the African Americans were forced to undergo a number of problems like racial segregation, discrimination, marginalization, slavery and forced labor. Within this scenario, the efforts undertaken by the African American leaders helped the African Americans to consider that gaining legal rights can solve the problems faced by them. To be specific, African Americans considered that equality in the mainstream society can help them to attain race uplift. Thesis statement: Within the context of African American activism, race uplift is interconnected with the unending effort to gain legal, political, economic and social rights, and the contributions of the African American leaders are most important because the same helped the m to move towards development, in general. African Americans and race uplift First of all, the history of African American activism is linked with the problems faced by the African Americans in the mainstream society. Earlier, the African Americans were not aware of the fact that legal rights can be gained by the means of activism. Gradually, the African Americans came to realize the fact that idleness cannot solve their problems. So, some of the African Americans decided to protest against slavery. This revolutionary spirit originating from helplessness was most important for the African American race uplift in future. Michael Ezra stated that, â€Å"In terms of African American self-help initiatives, in the decades that followed Reconstruction, a generation of â€Å"race uplift† black American leaders emerged, whether integrationist, Pan-African nationalist, back-to-Africa proponents, or Nation of Islam separatist† (2). Within this context, Emancipation Proclamation was an important initiative from the side of the government. Henceforth, the African American population came to realize that gaining legal rights can lead the community towards political liberation, a key factor behind race uplift. The Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement helped the African Americans to gain a number of rights. To be specific, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 helped the African Americans to be away from discrimination in the society. So, one can easily identify the fact that African Americans considered race uplift as a means to attain their ultimate aim, i.e., equality in the society. To be specific, race uplift of African Americans is not limited to the context of their community, but extends to the context of activism aiming to gain legal, political, economic and social rights in the society. Major contributors of African American race uplift: The political leaders, social reformers, human rights activists, and civil rights leaders were the major contribut ors of African American race uplift. For instance, the leaders, reformers, and activists like Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Booker Taliaferro Washington, Mary Jane McLeod Bethune, etc are generally considered as the major contributors of African American race uplift. One can see that the African Americans leadership is an amalgamation of different classes in the community. For instance, the African American political leaders considered that political liberation can help the African Americans to be in the forefront of development. On the other side, the African American social reformers considered that gaining social rights can accelerate the progress of African American community. The African American human rights activists and civil rights leaders worked for the community to educate the members on the importance of rights and duties in the society. So, one can see that the contributors of the African American race uplift worked hard to accelerate the upwar d mobility of the African Am

Catawba County, NC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Catawba County, NC - Essay Example With regards to law and governance, Catawba County is a member of the Western Piedmont Council of Governments. The 2010 census noted that there were 154,356 people living within the county. Similarly, the 2000 census noted that 146,515 people inhabited the county; representing around a 5.1% increase in total population over a ten year period (Basso 29). As opposed to the earlier representations of the economy which have been noted, the current economy of Catawba county relies heavily upon industrial manufacturing. This has partly been born out of the fact that the transportation hub of rail and highway as it developed helped the region to become highly competitive with skilled labor and ease of access to markets along the eastern seaboard as well as the rest of the United States. As a function of a high number of skilled labor jobs, the economy of the region has fared relatively well in comparison to other less industrialized regions within the United States during the economic downtown which has been experienced (Employment and Earnings 216). One of the main bragging points that the county has is with regards to the high number of famous individuals that hail from Catawba. These include a grand total of 12 NASCAR drivers (on of these of course being Dale Jarett, a pair of actors (James Best and Matthew Settle), a litany of singers/songwriters (inclusive of a member of the Grateful Dead and Tori Amos), a beauty queen, and a host of well renowned sportsmen in almost every discipline. This wide variety of talent that the county itself has produced over the past few years helps to flavor its culture and underscore the fact that even though it could be understood as a solid core of manufacturing, mass transit, and industry, it nonetheless has a solid base of culture that it has developed and continues to export

Risk-Return Concepts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Risk-Return Concepts - Essay Example Thus, small investors concentrate on putting their money on government bonds, debt, and real estate. These decisions are somehow warranted due to the investor's aversion to risk. However, in addressing this situation, it is crucial to look at one of the core principles in finance-the risk-return concept. The risk-return principle stipulates that the potential return of an investment rises with its potential risk (Risk-Return Tradeoff 2003). In other words, low risk investments generate low rewards to the investor while high risk ones presents probable returns. The risk and return principle clearly asserts that investors are faced with the tradeoff between risk and return. In line with this, an investment risk pyramid is devised in order to fully understand the equation of risk and return. The base of the pyramid is occupied by low risk-low return investments such as cash, cash deposits, notes, bills, and government bonds. It should be noted that these financial instruments often have a fixed return for a certain duration making investors less prone to financial default. The middle of the pyramid is occupied by medium risk investment like real estate, mutual funds, large/small capital stocks, and high income bonds and debt.

Google's equity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Google's equity - Essay Example Brand awareness measures the accessibility of the brand in the memory. Brand awareness can be measured through brand recall or brand recognition. Brand recognition reflects the ability of consumers to confirm prior exposure to the brand and recognizes that it is an â€Å"old† brand that they have been before and not a â€Å"new† brand that they are seeing for the first time. Brand image is defined as consumer perceptions of a brand and is measured as the brand associations held in consumer’s memory. Google has bagged a prominent place in the first 10 major brands in the world. It has dominated to expand in to software and video, mapping and web browsing its brand value had short up by 43%, from $17.8 billion to $25.59billion. (Top 100 Most Powerful Brand 08). Young and Rubicam developed a proprietary tool to measure brand asset value. It has four dimensions the four dimensions are (1) the brand’s perceived differentiation (2) its relevance (3) its knowledge and (4) its esteem To evaluate the four parameters brand knowledge, brand recognition, brand awareness and brand image an international market survey was conducted in ten major countries using internet. The population of the survey included students, teachers, educational institutions, industrial establishments, banking and insurance industry the sample questionnaire is enclosed the survey revealed that Google occupies 10Th place among the major brands in the world in all types of the commercial and industrial activities and first place in internet services. The four major parameters of brand audit is supplemented by brand positioning statement. â€Å"A brand positioning statement describes the "mental space" a brand should occupy in the minds of a target audience. It serves as an internal document which guides most of a companys marketing communications strategies, programs and

The Reason for Choosing Pharmacy as a Profession Essay Example for Free

The Reason for Choosing Pharmacy as a Profession Essay I belong to a family of traditional physicians in Hong Kong. As the eldest son in my family, it is certain that I will inherit this traditional medical practice. Our neighborhood has very few medical facilities available and consequently, there has always been a steady stream of ailing persons, visiting our clinic. Right from a very early age, I have been actively involved with this process and in this manner I developed not only interest in treating patients, but I also acquired quite a bit of knowledge regarding the traditional medicines used to cure the various ailments that people undergo. In addition, I developed a great deal of interest in lending a patient and sympathetic ear to patients. In school, I developed tremendous interest in science and discovered my innate scientific bent of mind. Gradually, I developed proficiency in the basics of pharmacology and with this expertise, realization dawned on me that I could achieve much more than merely continuing in the footsteps of my father. My surmise was that a more detailed and in depth study, into this fascinating subject would help me to isolate the specific ingredients in the herbs, used in traditional medicine, which were instrumental in effecting the cure. Such identification of the critical components in traditional medicines would enable me to enhance the healing capacity of these medicines.   Ã‚  In order to increase my knowledge, in this context, I became a member of the Medical Student Science Association of Hong Kong. I was in the habit of experimenting with the extraction and identification of the different compounds present in drugs, which had curative properties. In one such experiment, I was successful in isolating eucalyptol, which is chiefly employed as an expectorant in medicine, from the eucalyptus tree. Since my twin objectives are to develop medicines and to help people who are suffering from various diseases, pharmacy is the suitable field of study to embark upon. This burning desire to become a pharmacist was further fuelled by my experiences in the US. In that country, I had the good fortune to closely observe pharmacists at work, while working with them. They are very patient and competent, while listening to the problems of patients and replying them. Their enthusiasm and professionalism are legendary and this served to motivate me to follow in their footsteps. I have been very active in the Texas Southern Universitys Pre-health Professionals Club. In this highly inspiring place, I understood the value and effect of empathizing with the difficulties being faced by patients. Moreover, I realized the value of professionalism. The College of Pharmacy and Health Science of the Texas Southern University is veritably one of its kind in the US. Its primary objective is to provide excellent skills and competence, in the process of creating some of the best health care professionals in the nation. There is great emphasis on conducting research into new drugs and procedures. It would indeed be a great honor to complete the graduate program in pharmaceutical sciences (Pharmacy Health Sciences, 2006). The combination of my passionate love for pharmacy and the outstanding teaching of the College of Pharmacy and Health Science of the Texas Southern University would help me to provide much better help to patients. References Pharmacy Health Sciences. (2006, August 9). Retrieved January 20, 2008, from Texas Southern University: http://www.tsu.edu/academics/pharmacy/index.asp

Leadership Qualities That Rely on Five Principle Actions

Leadership Qualities That Rely on Five Principle Actions Akhil Reddy Leburu Abstract This paper explains the leadership principles that are proposed by James Kouzes and Barry Posner. The leadership qualities were described as per the five principles followed: Leaders challenge the process, Leaders inspire a shared vision, Leaders enable others to act, Leaders model the way, Leaders encourage the heart. The ethical behavior and social identity are briefly described. Keywords: Ethical behavior, Social identity Leadership Qualities That Rely on Five Principle Actions The five actionable qualities are main roles that leaders should acquire given by the author. Leaders plays an important role in the company who leads the team and assign the tasks to team members per their skills or department. He/she should take the responsibility of the team members. The influential roles that a leader should obtain are given below. We are going to discuss about the five principles that are required for a leader. In this discussion, Im giving real time examples to describe how each principle can be effected on real world situation. Leadership Challenge the Process Inspiring innovation and leading change call for more than process- they require the adoption of a cultural mindset (as cited in Forbes by Mike Myatt). The leader should challenge the foundation if the vision and core values are shaky. Challenging the promise keeps the leader sustainable and deliverable. For example, if the leader is not able to communicate with team members and not able to complete the product as promised to given time, you may be in the trouble. The leader should challenge himself instead of challenging others. Great leaders challenge all the complex things. The leader must assess the information quality gathered and must be credibility in the process. Leaders Inspire a Shared Vision If they [employees] cant see themselves in the picture, then they cant imagine that its a possibility for them. (as cited in Forbes by Carmine Gallo). The leaders must have a clear and perfect vision before inspiring others. For example, the professional athletics visualize the game before the game starts from beginning to end, they focus on gaining the victory. Invite your team members to explore their ideas or thoughts and opinions to be more than a pay check. Nothing extraordinary ever happened without a leader articulating a vision, a course of action says John F. Kennedy. Leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Che Guevara inspire us by being themselves as great speakers who were followed by the public opinion and share their vision to the world. Leaders Enable Others to Act Leaders who Enable Others to Act spread their influence far beyond their physical sphere (says Jody R. Rogers). The leader cannot survive without his/her teammates or colleagues. The leader need to take an advantage of opportunities of team to decode their challenges. Leader should take a responsibility of sharing each other ideas or thoughts to implement new products. The leader should have skills or knowledge on what the team are discussing about and meet their expectations. For example, if a team has a different thought that solves the current problem, the leader doesnt take a chance of referring the problem with the team, the leader may lose the opportunity to get a perfect solution. Leaders Model the Way Leaders live and act by their values. They have clarity in what they believe, and they align their actions with their values. Leaders must set an example by setting the actions with shared values. For example, a car dealer who dominates his market. He is not only the one, the next four car dealers combine and equal up the market where he competes. The leaders must lead a path to next generation by giving a motivation. He/She must be excepting the ideas and thoughts of the team. Leaders Encourage the Heart Leaders give heart by visibly recognizing peoples contributions to the common vision (by Kouzes Posner, 2012). The leader must recognize contributions by giving respect for individual excellence. Leaders follow their heart and encourage the thoughts and get them into the world. They should take the responsibility of the team and give them the requirements and space needed. Conclusion I conclude that the five principles that are proposed by James Kouzes and Barry Posner plays an important role in the leadership challenge process. The leaders must follow the principles that are mentioned in the discussion. I have given a brief description of each and every principle in the paper. References http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2013/03/07/10-things-every-leader-should-challenge/#207cd262450b http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2011/07/06/the-7-secrets-of-inspiring-leaders/#77c61e923195 http://www.leadershipchallenge.com/resource/enabling-others-to-act-inspiring-commitment-.aspx Kouzes, James, and Posner, Barry, (2008). The Student Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. http://www.tsaweb.org/sites/default/files/u1/Model%20the%20Way%20Lesson.pdf Kouzes, J.M., Posner, B.Z. (2012). The Leadership Challenge, (5th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass. https://prezi.com/devk6jm5ysff/leadership-challenge-encouraging-the-heart-final/

Scheduler Choice in Cluster Environment

Scheduler Choice in Cluster Environment Clusters have become more popular and ubiquitous and the number of processors in cluster have also increased considerably. They consist of collection of a homogeneous machines or a host of diverse computational devices which collaborate via a high speed network to execute high-performance applications. Computer industry has widely accepted that future performance increases must largely come from increasing the number of processing cores on a die. This has led to NoC processors. Efficient scheduling of high performance applications on these parallel computing systems is critical to enhance their performance and to improve system throughput. It has been proved that the problem of scheduling tasks with precedence constraints is NP-Complete [Papad, 1994]. The data flow model is gaining popularity as a programming paradigm for parallel computers. Many high-performance applications are a collection of modules which have control/data dependences among them. When the characteristics of an application is fully deterministic, including tasks execution time, size of data communicated between tasks, and task dependencies, the application can be represented by a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG). With an increase in the number of processing units, expressing parallelism of an application has become a major challenge. Many studies have proved that designing parallel applications using both task and data parallelism is an effective approach than pure data or pure task parallel models. This mixed parallelism achieves both higher scalability and performance. Mixed parallel applications are represented as Parallel Task Graph (PTG), a graph of data parallel tasks. Understanding the importance of task scheduling on a parallel system, an attempt is made to address issues in scheduling multiple applications with the objectives of enhancing the performance of individual applications and also increasing the throughput the parallel computing system. In this thesis, we introduce two new algorithms Level Based Scheduler (LBS) and Improved Level Based Scheduler (ILBS) to schedule parallel applications represented as parallel task graph onto a cluster of multi-core processors with the objective of reducing their completion time. Both algorithms can be used both as static or hybrid schedulers. We argue that hybrid scheduler is a good scheduler choice in a cluster environment to optimize the utilization of its resources. We state that a better way to deal with multiple applications on a cluster is through adoptive space-sharing approach with a promise to benefit both the user and the cluster administrator. In a space-sharing approach, each application is given a set of processors and it is executed on these processors only. A parallel application can be run on a varied number of processors i.e. a moldable job. Hence we argue that it is good to change processor allotment for executing applications depending on the workload on cluster. To perform initial processor allotment and subsequent adaptations if required, methods to find the optimal and maximal number of processors that an application can utilize are developed. Also a novel method to share available processors among multiple competing task graphs is proposed. A framework is developed to bring together the proposed hybrid schedulers, methods to find processor requirement of each application, the scheme to share processors among multiple applicat ions and a new policy to decide processor allotment for each submitted application. Approaches to improve scheduling on a NoC processor is attempted. An approach to make any list scheduling method more time efficient to schedule a task graph on NoC is proposed and experimented. To schedule multiple applications on NoC, the number of cores and which cores to be assigned for each application must be decided. Our belief is that this job of deciding number of cores can be better performed by the joint collaboration of the user and system instead of any one doing it alone. Hence we have developed methods to find the optimal and maximal block of cores that an application can utilize which is later used to decide the actual core allotment for each application. Policies to decide how many and which cores to be assigned for each application are suggested. All the experiments in this thesis are carried out using a discrete event simulator. Benchmark task graphs are taken from different sources, from where other researchers have taken to compare their scheduler performance. The metrics makespan and efficiency of the schedule are used. The developed LBS is compared with MCPA the most widely accepted good scheduler and EMTS the recent PTG scheduler are chosen for performance comparison. The benchmark suite includes regular task graph, random task graph and few real applications task graph. For regular task graphs LBS shows in improvement in makespan by 2-9% in comparison to MCPA. But for irregular PTGs, LBS shows 4-12% performance improvement over MCPA, which is significantly higher than for regular PTGs. Since EMTS uses evolutionary methods, it generates better schedule but at the expense of more computing time. The proposed LBS performance is inferior to EMTS by around 2-7% and 2-4% for regular and random PTGs respectively. Another metric used is the efficiency which is a measure of effective utilization of resources. The efficiency of LBS is more than MCPA, but the improvement is less than that for makespan. This is attributed to the fact task allocation in MCPA leads to better utilization of processors than in L BS. Efficiency of LBS is more than MCPA by 1-3% and less than EMTS by 1-2%. Another scheduler ILBS is compared with LBS and TwoL[rauber 1998], a good method to schedule set of independent tasks. ILBS exhibits performance improvement of 2-7% over LBS and 2-10% over TwoL for regular PTGs. For random PTGs improvement is 6-12% over LBS and 4-8% over TwoL. The increased performance of ILBS for regular PTGs is attributed to the method of finding of the best possible schedule at each level. The performance of the proposed novel method of sharing processors among multiple task graphs is compared with the most recent methods suggested by Tapke et al. The new method exhibited a performance improvement of 6-9% for all categories of task graph and is maximum when the demand for the processors is relatively more than available processors. A complete framework is developed to tailor together the pieces of work carried out. The new policies suggested to decide processor allotment for each task graph show 4-7% performance improvement in average completion time of a task graph. The proposed policy also exhibits better performance for the time required to complete a set of task graphs by 4-7%. Thus the new policy is good from both user and system perspectives. The approach to make list scheduling method more time efficient to generate a schedule for a NoC processor is implemented in DLS[] method and it recorded around 20-45% improvement in execution time. The time is recorded by executing the application on the cycle accurate multi2sim simulator. The new policy proposed to decide the cores allotment for each application performs better than the best methods found in the literature by 4-20%. The issues in scheduling multiple applications on a cluster of multi-core processors and a NoC processor is addressed in this thesis. The observed performance improvement indicate the usefulness of proposed methods.

Meeting the Demand for Clergy in Victorian England :: European History

Meeting the Demand for Clergy in Victorian England    Many new changes came to Victorian England as a result of the age of industrialization. Where there were once small country parishes, manufacturing towns were springing up. One change resulting from industrialization was the shortage of clergy to fill the new parishes in these towns. These new parishes reflect the demographic changes of the English countryside. Rural villages grew into booming towns. Where a single parish was once sufficient, there was now a need for multiple parishes. The Church of England went about meeting these demands for new clergy in two major ways, actively recruiting men to the clergy and restructuring theological facilities and changing the requirements for ordination. These factors show us some of the upheaval and reconstruction that was going on in the Anglican Church in Victorian England. This was a direct result of the need to train a large number of clergy in a relatively short period of time. Industrialization changed the demographic make up of England. In The Victorian Church in York Edward Royle states that "As suburban development turned sparsely populated manors into thriving and populous communities, further parochial sub-division took place" (2). Where small parishes once were sufficient, the larger manufacturing towns demanded more parishes be added to minister to the larger population. In 1832 the "Church of England was in danger and quite unequipped for ministry to an emerging urban industrial society" (Parsons 16). There was a shortage of clergy because of the rapid unanticipated growth. The demand for so many clergy to be ordained quickly led to restructuring clerical requirements. This demand could be shown in mere numbers, for example: "In 1841 there were just over 14,000 clergy in England and in 1891 there were more than 24,000" (Parsons 25). In the 1840s these clergy were primarily trained at the two major universities, Oxford and Cambridge. A small percentage (14%) came from small theological colleges. Many people could not afford to send their sons to these universities for the length of time required to become ordained. The combination of the increased demand in number of clergy needed and the time restriction for development created a crisis. The result of this crisis, was the development of the lesser theological colleges for the non-ordained and vocationally trained clergy.. This caused a number of issues to be raised. The result of this trend was " the growth of non-university clergy and the inadequacy of its theological instruction" (qtd.

My Memories :: essays research papers

These are some of my memories that I can remember clearly. Some are from a very long time ago and some are quite resent. I have three, some parts of them are bad memories and other parts are that good that I’ll never forget them. One of my earliest memories was when I was about 3 or 4 and lived in a small house in Warrington. It was a hot sunny day and I was out in the garden playing football with my friend Joe. My Mum, and Joe's Mum, were both in the house having dinner together because they had not seen each other for a while. Me and Joe were both seeing who could do the most kick-ups. When it was my turn, I kicked the ball too far and it landed in next doors garden. I walked over to have a look if I could see it. As I was walking over I could see some thing in the bush, I then realized it was an action figure. So I ran to get it, but before I got there, Joe had already beaten me to it. I tried to snatch of him but he kept hold tight, like a dog with a bone. We were fighting and arguing over it for about 2 or 3 minutes. Then all of a sudden he let go and I went flying through the air. I then ended up landing on the concrete out side the back door and smacking my head on the floor. The pain rushed to my head and I started to feel dizzy. It felt like some one had put my head in a vice and tightened it slowly. There was no blood but there was a huge bruise on the back of my head. I started to scream as loud as I could and both of our parents came rushing out of the back door to see what was going on. The brui se lasted for a week or so and I didn’t talk to Joe for a month or so. Another one of my memories was when I was around 10 years old. My Dad had a friend who was doing up an old motor bike out of scrap parts. At the time all I wanted was a motor bike, and I begged my Dan to buy it of his friend. My Dad asked his friend if he would sell the motor bike after he had got it working.

Duty Of Care In Health,Social Care Or Childrens Settings

Task AWhen looking after children you have a duty of care to them, this means it is your responsibility to keep the child safe and free from harm. The younger the child the greater the duty of care is,you need to be vigilant and pay attention to keep children safe. Mentally risk assessing situations as they arise will help you see any potential dangers to the child and help you plan to avoid any risk. You also need to be aware of a child's feelings and help them develop them so they understand how words as well as actions can hurt others.Duty of care contributes to the safeguarding and protection of children as you have to follow certain procedures to keep children safe,such as safe guarding policies, risk assessments and precautions to avoid accidents or the spreading of infections. Assessments and observations on a children could alert you to any problems that may need addressing, these may then require discussions with parents and/or other professionals.Task BPotential conflict or dilemma: Child's parents don't want child taking part in certain activities due to their religion. How to manage the risk: Insure there are activities the child can take part in when the others are doing theirs, communicate with parents to avoid any such conflict. Where to get support and advice: Parents, online,library.Potential conflict or dilemma: Child swearing.How to manage the risk: Discuss with children about appropriate behaviour from the beginning. Where to get support and advice: Review ‘managing behaviour' policy regularly.Potential conflict or dilemma: Child wants to watch telly all day. How to manage the risk: Discussion with child,offer alternatives. Where to get  support and advice: The child- find out likes and dislikes.Task CHave in place complaints procedure and policy.

The Episodic Novel Of Huckleberry Finn English Literature Essay

In his episodic novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain fabricates a journey as the platform for the storyteller ‘s symbolic rite of transition. The supporter, Huckleberry Finn, discovers the true colourss of his individualism, as he voyages through his many escapades and additions invaluable experiences. While he matures and progresss, Huck discards his temperament as an ignorant and juvenile stripling hungering for joy and hazard and becomes a adult male, being able to firmly identify and set up his ethical motives and moralss. During this intricate procedure, he develops a chumminess with a Jim, a runaway slave, finally larning the true horrors of the blemished society, in which he lives in. As a function in Huck ‘s acquisition procedure, Mark Twain realistically utilizes the societal perceptual experience of Whites during the clip period to help Huck in detecting the defects of bondage, rejecting many critics ‘ premise that he is a racialist. Huck, a thirteen-year-old boy of a rummy, is recurrently strained to last on his ain marbless where sometimes it contradicts society ‘s criterions and Torahs. As he seems to trek down the Mississippi River, he besides journeys down his interior outlook, as Huck encounters challenges between his societal scruples and single scruples. Huck ever seems to look up to the educated, the high and mid-class. He appeared to do himself believe that his judgement was inferior or abased to theirs because he was nonreader, and non truly portion of society – or a civilised human being. He blindly follows Tom Sawyer, due to the fact that he was educated and brought up in a refined urbane scene. As the novel opens, Huck is forced to be integrated in society and civilisation. Though he struggles, he persuades himself to sublimate in. In the beginning, Huck is perplexed by the asinine intent of faith. As Widow Douglas and Miss. Watson seek really difficult to reform Huck to go â€Å" sivilize † , he does n't see the intent of Eden and snake pit. It ‘s these first marks of society ( faith ) that plays an impact on Huck, where he makes a connexion that his actions will find his finish after decease. Huck besides can be portrayed as an innate philosopher, where he is really disbelieving of the social tenet ( faith ) and in fact perceives these thoughts in his ain ways, as he tries to reform. This is seen with Huck ‘s thought that snake pit might really be a better topographic point than the Widow Douglas ‘s Eden. Thus this issue merely engenders Huck ‘s moral development. When Huck encounters Jim on Jackson ‘s island, and attends his narrative of a runaway slave, Huck sees Jim as a human being instead than a slave. Huck feels empathy and compunction, as he hears Jim ‘s sad narrative of his household being ripped apart. Huck, who merely was n't able to properly to the full mold with society, and Jim, a run-away slave, both were alienated from society in cardinal ways. Both now in some signifier freed from the falseness and unfairness of society, but knew this would non last long. When Huck realizes that his destiny was wrapped around Jim ‘s, he inquiry ‘s the morality of assisting a run-away slave, this in which was against jurisprudence, and interrupting a jurisprudence would take him to hell. More subtly, Twain knock the American South for its bogus romanticism and hypocritical Christianity. Huck decries the thought that the Christianity of the South is a living contradiction. Huck does non grok the fact how society accepts bo ndage yet ignores the Biblical impression of the equality of all trusters. ( â€Å" The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn † pg1 ) . However, Huck conceded and acknowledged that he would travel to hell, in which a forfeit he was willing to do. In farther context, Twain in his plant is non a racialist. In the mode he depicts Jim as a existent individual, who carries feelings and emotions, shows in fact that Twain is an opposition of bondage. Huck had the common sense to see how bondage was a echt blight to humanity. Perversely the so called sophisticated society accepted it, even the â€Å" good people such as Miss. Watson. † Huck matures farther as he breaks that mask that society gave Jim, and accepts him as a normal individual. Huck refers to Jim, â€Å" I knowed he was white indoors. † ( Twain, pg 46 ) . It shows how Huck, who was brought up in a really bigoted subdivision of the state, that ingested all the lip service of bondage, was still able to exceed it by merely cognizing this one â€Å" nigga † , Jim. Furthermore, Huck ‘s character alterations as Jim teaches him about friendly relationship. Their relationship becomes tighter, after the Huck ‘s gag about him ne'er had gone losing in the fog. Huck learns that Jim is a individual is with feelings, and finally Jim induces this motion into Huck ‘s adulthood. This is the critical point of Huck ‘s transmutation, where Huc k apologizes to Jim. Huck ‘s ocean trip down the Mississippi taught him much, but was chiefly a frolic. But once it resumes, when Huck is taken up the Grangerfords, he journeys to the dark side of American civilisation. The benevolent household who offer Huck to remain is in a firing feud between another household, the Shepherdsons. Twain uses these two households to use in some deriding absurdness and to mock an â€Å" excessively romanticizes thoughts about household award † . Ultimately, the households ‘ sensationalized feud gets many of them killed. Huck genuinely refutes society one time he saw his new friend Buck, be shot and killed. Twain uses this incident to notice on all systems of rule that rebuffs the humanity of another set of people. Huck becomes befuddled in this episode. The Grangerfords are a mix of contradictions where they treat Huck good, but they own slaves and act more unwisely with other household by killing one other. Is this what society dawns upon? In the denouement, Huck transmogrifies into a full stripling who now truly believes in his values, and deems that it should non be manipulable and tarnished by society ‘s Torahs. Near the decision of the novel, Huck and Tom make an effort to liberate Jim who is held captured. After Tom ‘s farcical program fails, everyone learns that Jim was really a free adult male for hebdomads ( because Miss. Watson, in her will, let Jim to be free when she died ) . This thought of liberating a free black adult male had a particular resonance at the clip Twain wrote this novel. Blacks during this clip had much problem incorporating with society because of the racial subordination that was still present predating the Civil War.Work Citedâ€Å" The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay. † Novelguide.com. December 14, 2009. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.novelguide.com/huckleberryfinn/index.html & gt ; . Couple, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. United States: Bantum Books, Inc. , 1884.

Healthy Eating Habits Essay

Eating healthy is said to be the key to a healthy quality life. Our physical fitness and overall health is highly dependent on what we eat. Hence it is very essential to adopt healthy eating habits. It improves your physical and psychological health as well as increases your energy level. Healthy eating habits help reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, heart disease, certain types of cancer and many other health problems. Healthy eating offers stronger bones and muscles. It also helps you look and feel better and energized. Quality food consumption becomes especially important in the present world of high stress and pollution.Making a healthy diet is an essential aspect of modern self health care.Anybody who seriously tried living healthier through a better diet, proper physical activity, adequate rest will overall have better health and a sense of well being, better sleep, improved physical endurance and strength, sharper mental abilities and lower sleep require ments. Healthy eating habits are essential to create a solid foundation for good health. This can be done by avoiding or minimizing excess sugar and processed foods. All these foods are often very high in calories and harmful artificial substances, low in nutrients and high in simple sugars. Consumption of such foods has been linked with a variety of diseases including obesity, diabetes, malnutrition and cancer. What we should emphasize on is actually to ensure a balanced and adequate nutritional intake. It is important to do your best at getting the right quantities of all essential-for-health nutrients, and minimize the risks of getting too much or too little of any. The more natural and less processed the food, the better its health promoting value. Some nutrient loss always occurs during food processing. Such foods are rich in a variety of high quality nutrients like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, enzymes, fats, carbohydrates, proteins and others.Besides that, we should eat only when hungry and do not overeat regardless of food. This habit helps create a balance in the body that leads to a healthier state of being by letting the body naturally regulate its needs.Do not wait too long unless fasting or cleansing is desired. Therefore, it is crucial to encourage and practice healthy eating habits. This should be done since we are little to make it easier since children are like white sheets and it is the parents’ responsibility to colour them. Our  diet should be healthy and balanced. It should consist of adequate amounts of fats, carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and fibers. We should include plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits as well as dairy products in our daily diet. Generally, it should be low in fats and rich in proteins and carbohydrates. Last of all, always remember, no food is good or bad. It’s up to us how to balance the variety of foods. Adopt healthy eating habits for good health and physical fitness, leading to a cheerful, healthy life. That way, we can enjoy life to the fullest without any health tribulations.

Lin Article Questions

If any differences are statistically significant and small have the researchers notes that they are small? The researchers share with their readers that the sample sizes were collected at both the pretest, posttest, and the follow up. Is the results section a cohesive essay? 3. Does the researcher refer back to the research hypothesis, purposes, or questions originally stated in the introduction? 4. When there are a number of related statistics, ave they been presented in a table? . If there are tables, are there highlights discussed in the narrative of the results section? 6. Overall, is the presentation of the results comprehensible? Critique of discussion -ch. 12 1 .In long articles do the researchers briefly summarize the purpose and results at the beginning of the discussion session? The researchers begin the discussion section by 2. Do the researchers acknowledge specific methodological limitations? a. Sample size 3. Are the results discussed in terms of their literature cited in the introduction? . Are the results discussed in terms of any relevant theories? 5. Are suggestions for future research specific? Critique of entire article -Ch. 13 1 . In your Judgment, has the researchers selected an important problem? a. Use research to express how full the US Jails are. 2. Is the report cohesive? 3. Does the report extend the boundaries of the knowledge on a 4. Is the research likely to inspire additional research? a. Yes- there was previous research that they extended on.They did not do a large sample group. Potentially future researchers will extend on the theories used, sample size and/or demographics. 5. Is the research likely to help in decision making? -Discuss potential follow up study that has some changes in the design that would add meaningful to this subject area. -adopt basic design of the first study, only with some modification to make it better. :::Sample size and demographics Lin Article Questions By statsisnofriendofmine

Analytical Paper

Presenting the public with two â€Å"equal† sides and making the scientific community seem divided. The best way that constrains Interfered with a scientific consensus was to generate doubt within the American public by creating a delve between scientists. For example, the harmfulness of acid rain was questioned when Fred Singer 1 contradicted the factual evidence of his committee by claiming in an official government report that the causes of acid rain were not certain and that a reduction in industrial emissions would not necessarily help solve the problem.Both of these statements were in direct contradiction with the international scientific community, which made the consensus seem wavering and the official White House-appointed panel seem divided. Fred Singer reemerges on the issue of ozone depletion by blasting the science community when claiming that the whole issue was an under- researched overreaction (1 26); he claimed that ozone depletion was due to natural stratosph eric cooling (127).Several years later, Bill Emergencies created doubt over climate change when he lead a report asserting that rolling CA was a problem that loud be solved with technology and the government only needed to fund more research (183). Merchants of Doubt provides countless examples of contraction scientists chopping down the certainty of scientific findings. Constrains like Singer and Energetic are able to discredit the work of thousands of scientists because they are praised leading scientists who have served in distinguished federal science corporations.They have developed ties to the government through federal agencies, think tanks, and direct contact with congressman, senators, and presidents (7). Secondly, the people who are being arrogated by scientists are industries with lots of money, which have the resources to hire and provide funding to influential people who will defend their products. With strong reputations and money, contraction scientists are perceived as â€Å"experts† with â€Å"Informed opinions† and thus are granted a false sense of credibility and Influence.Tactic #2: Tagging scientist as â€Å"bad† and calling their findings â€Å"junk. † Fred Sister, an influential defender of the tobacco industry, invented a tactic of contraction scientists that targeted the EPA as a Junk organization whose science â€Å"is manipulated to fulfill a political agenda† (144) and â€Å"imposes enormous economic costs on all aspects of society† (142). Sites and Singer blasted their views of the EPA as â€Å"bad scientists† all over public media venues such as the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.Singer attacked the EPA for not considering that adverse health effects from second hand smoke could be due to outside factors when doing an epidemiological study; he claimed the EPA rigged their results and ignored other possibilities In order to dupe the public (144). I believe the â€Å"bad science† argument Is accepted by the public because science Is nearly misunderstood for a variety of reasons. Firstly, research results can be complicated and generally confusing to a nonscientific, therefore the public must credible counterargument and splitting the scientific consensus (Task #1).Most people have no scientific baseline from which to make informed opinions so they gather information from â€Å"experts† from both sides of a scientific story. Secondly, science in general is an objective project, scientists stress that their results are always falsifiable and that continued research is necessary to strengthen a scientific finding. For example, Roger Reveille started a talk to the AAAS about climate change by saying, â€Å"There is a good but by no means certain chance that the world's average climate will become significantly warmer during the next century' (191).Constrains used this ambiguous statement as a way to show that scientists are unsure of thei r work, when in fact there is no â€Å"certain chance† in any scientific trend. In order to remain trustworthy, scientists must always instill a sense of impartiality that is misconstrued as uncertainty. Tactic #3: Making the public believe that environmentalism is a threat to the American value system. One goal of scientific findings on acid rain or the ozone hole is to invoke political action that will ensure safety to humans and the environment.Contraction scientists claim that this goal is UN-American and that the corrupt political agenda of environmentalism is a threat to human rights. For example, a pro-smoking organization, FORESTS, claimed that if smoking was banned, â€Å"there is essentially no limit to how much government can ultimately control our lives† (164). As Singer and Sites would put it, it was individual liberty at stake. â€Å"Today smoking, tomorrow†¦ Who knew? (145). Science was also attacked for being uneconomic. Dixie Lee Ray in the 1992 Progress Foundation Economic Conference claimed â€Å"sustainability was replacing [economic] progress† (252).Constrains aimed to convince Americans that by protecting industry they were protecting their â€Å"liberty that depended on [economic] progress† (252). This tactic was made possible because constrains tapped into the American fear of the communist Soviet Union by claiming that environmentalism was a socialist endeavor. They pegged environmentalists as â€Å"Watermelons': green on the outside, red on the inside† (248). When the Cold War ended, constrains funneled socialist fear into an anti-climate change movement, which revolved around the idea that climate change was against American's liberty and prosperity.The attackers believed they were â€Å"working to ‘secure the blessings of liberty as if science was being used against those blessings?in ways that challenged the freedom of free enterprise† (238). Constrains put science under the fir e by claiming that its agenda was to deny the rights of citizens, much like the Soviets did to their citizens in the Cold War. Conclusion: The players mentioned?singer, Suite, Energetic, Lee Ray, and FOREST ?among others have created organized patterns of doubt that misconstrue the validity of research and science.Using money and influence, they have dismantled any form of consensus within the scientific community and have used popular media outlets to echo their claims. 9 They understand the American emphasis on economic have attacked scientists as being politically incentive socialists that threaten citizen's rights to freedom and prosperity. They have used these strategies to stunt political action in issues like acid rain and climate change and have caused the American public to lose faith in the credibility of science.

The Ministers Black Veil Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Ministers Black Veil - Essay Example Milton Stewart’s comment is remarkable in this regard, â€Å"Evil will forever reign over good, for the peccable, weak souls of todays youth are for more intelligent than any of us will ever be.† Nathaniel Hawthorne has incorporated this theme in some of his works of great significance, for instance, ‘The Scarlet Letter’ and ‘Young Goodman Brown’. Hawthorne through his work ‘The Minister’s Black Veil’ tends to identify individual flaw with universal character of mankind using a symbol, which hides the physical but reveals the abstract. The short story of Hawthorne uses the black veil as a symbol, which gains prominence in the very title of the story. The black veil predominates the very plot and theme of the story. The story initiates in front of the church where the funeral ceremony of a young maiden is being held and the minister appears with a black veil covering more than half of his face. Only his mouth and chin were visible and the onlookers search for the reason behind it. When he bends over the maiden the veil hangs such that if the corpse’s eyes are open she can see his face. This again raises a question about the reason why he is hiding his face and what his â€Å"secret sin† is. He immediately catches the veil with his hand to keep the face covered. Even his wife cannot get a definite answer and the minister declares that he is going to wear the veil throughout his life. Many critics have questioned the purpose of using the veil but according to Carnochan, the black veil serves more as a à ¢â‚¬Å"symbol of symbols† than simply a â€Å"parable of guilt†. The purpose of the veil is to reflect a meaning on one hand and on the other, hide it – â€Å"inviting speculation and resisting it† (Freedman, 354). Once the face is revealed the significance of the veil will be lost. The purpose of using the veil in the story is to initiate emotions of an individual. The plot tactfully reveals the curiosity of the townspeople,