Category Archives: Recommened reading

The 6 Pillars of Self-Esteem – Nathaniel Branden

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Branden helps us develop our understanding of self-esteem by describing the “six pillars” which he believes act as the foundation to gaining an understanding. The pillars include:

  1. The Practice of Living Consciously
  2. The Practice of Self-Acceptance
  3. The Practice of Self-ResponsibilityScreen Shot 2015-11-16 at 13.04.39
  4. The Practice of Self-Assertiveness
  5. The Practice of Living Purposefully
  6. The Practice of Personal Integrity

I decided to research what each of the pillars stood for in the hope of improving my own knowledge.

1. By living consciously we show an openness to learn about the world and ourselves. It gives us the opportunity to develop as a person as we seek information and feedback on the way we perform and behave. To live consciously a person should also show respect towards facts and the truths of life.

2. Self-Acceptance in my opinion is being able to think freely and not being scared to express yourself through thoughts and feelings. I also believe that self-acceptance allows a person to understand that they are an individual and takes them away from the notion of comparison with others.

3. The practice of self-responsibility can be defined as accepting that we are responsible for our own actions and behaviour. It is up to an individual to set themselves goals and to achieve them. We cannot blame others for our failures and must come to a solution as to solving our own problems.

4. The practice of self-assertiveness. I believe this to be our willingness to stand up for what we believe in. It could also be seen to be respecting our beliefs and opinions and not changing them in the fear of disapproval.

5. Living Purposefully implies that it is our duty to set ourselves long-term ad short-term goals and to recognise the actions needed to attain them. Goals should be monitored and reflected upon to allow us to improve as individuals. Setting goals also allows a person to feel good about themselves when they feel like it has been achieved.

6. The practice of personal integrity means that as individuals we must value honesty. It is our responsibility to tell the truth and to honour our personal commitments.

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The real blind man

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After today’s lecture I decided to watch the rest of “The Real Blind Man Honesty Test” on youtube and am shocked at how some people reacted. I was appalled to see the first man take $50 off the “blind” man, to then look around and run off with the money. I can’t believe someone could take advantage of what was perceived to be such a vulnerable individual. The second lady was more truthful and informed the man that he was infact handing over a $50 note instead of $5, which I thought most people would do. Unfortunately yet another person tried to take advantage of the sScreen Shot 2015-11-13 at 10.50.33ituation by taking the $50 and giving only $5 change. I can’t imagine doing this to someone who clearly can’t tell the difference and would have no clue that he had been robbed of $50. I found it interesting that both men so far have used the situation to their financial advantage and both women have pointed out the mans error and given him correct change.

The older generation also seem to be considerate and despite not having change take it upon themselves to inform the man that he has $50 and not $5 which could potentially stop the next person taking advantage of him if this were a real life situation. At one point the “blind” man actually asked another man “that was my five note wasn’t it?” He had actually handed over the $50 but the gentleman still replied “yes of course it was.” I can’t believe how many people were willing to take advantage of a vulnerable citizen who was simply looking for some change. I thoughtScreen Shot 2015-11-13 at 10.50.51 by watching till the end of the clip that perhaps someone would give the man change and not take the $5 or $50 note. I was totally shocked when one man took the $50 and swapped it for a lower valued note and had the nerve to pretend that he had returned the $50. I found it interesting that when questioned afterwards he acted as if he didn’t know and that he was sorry. However had this been a real life situation he would’ve walked off profiting from another person’s error.

I feel like before this clip I was maybe slightly naive about the lengths people would go to for easy money. This video seriously made me think about our morals as individuals and as a society and has made me want to look further into what defines our morals and why some people don’t seem to develop them. I genuinely believe that the people in this clip would be nice people and I don’t think that in their daily lives would cause any harm to anyone. However on this day they took advantage of a situation and I hope that they learned their lesson. If I was in this situation I know for a fact I would never take $50 and pretend like it was a $5, no matter how poor my own financial situation was. This situation is worsened by the fact these people are stealing money off who they believe is a blind man.

I am left wondering, do these people have poor morals? Was this just a one off? And what would my friends do if in the same situation?

 

 

The Big 5

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I had never really heard of the “Big 5” in relation to personality. I found it interesting that our personality can be seperated into different categories. After today’s lecture I decided to see how my personality can be perceived by taking a quick online test. I agree to a certain extent with the outcome. I like to be organised and can get stressed at the thought of missing deadlines or forgetting to do work. I try to stay as positive as I can on a day to day basis so was happy to see that the Neuroticism score was one of the the lowest. I tend to come across quite shy around new people so am not surprised that my openness score is also low.This test can be found at: http://personality-testing.info/tests/BIG5.php

Extraversion 3.3
57
Extraversion reflects how much you are oriented towards things outside yourself and derive satisfaction from interacting with other people. 
Conscientiousness 4
76
Conscientiousness reflects how careful and orderly an individual is. 
Neuroticism 2.4
25
Neuroticism is the tendency to experience negative emotions. 
Agreeableness 4.4
74
Agreeableness reflects how much you like and try please others. 
Openness 2.9
4
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Language Acquisition. Is there a critical period?

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Is there a critical period?

Lennenberg - 1967

Lennenberg – 1967

In 1967 Lennenberg proposed the idea that there may be a critical period for language development. His theory suggested that the first few years of life is the crucial period in which an individual can acquire language. He also implied that if language is not acquired within this time, then it will never be fully developed. He argues: “by the ages of two and three years language emerges by an interaction of maturation and self-programmed learning. Between the ages of three and early teens the possibility for primary language acquisition continues to be good… after this time the brain behave as if it had become set in its ways and primary, basic skills not acquired by this time usually remain deficient for life.” However recent research suggests that learning begins in the womb, which casts a sense of doubt on Lennenberg’s theory.

 

What it means to be an enquiring practitioner

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An enquiring practitioner conducts research to find out valuable information. The practitioner then shares this information with colleagues. Working together is vital to being an effective practitioner however group work can pose may challenges. Ineffective communication can be a major problem when working in partnership and could cause breakdowns in relationship and misunderstandings. Conflict between team members hinders the amount of work completed and lowers the group moral. It could also isolate members and cause them to show a lack of focus and non-contribution.

There are many benefits associated with group work. Working in groups can raise an individual’s confidence. It also creates opportunities to share and develop ideas, allowing individuals to gain knowledge from their peers. Increased efficiency is also associated with successful group work, tasks and workloads can be shared and any problems can be discussed and solved quickly.

I believe that being an enquiring practitioner is important to consider as a student teacher. Acting as an enquiring practitioner allows student teachers to effectively work with colleagues to plan and develop lessons. Group discussions also highlight areas of improvement, and as a student teacher it is important to recognise weaknesses and learn how to improve on these areas. Working with colleagues in the school environment can also give you the opportunity to observe how other teachers take lessons and perhaps you can use their techniques and incorporate them into your own lessons. Being able to research issues and share your findings is valuable as it creates the ability to learn new ideas, new solutions and ways to enforce your findings. Practitioner enquiry gives teachers confidence to challenge and improve the curriculum. Donaldson states:

“…if we are to achieve the aspiration of teachers being leaders of educational improvement, they need to develop expertise in using research, inquiry and reflection as part of their daily skill set.’”(Donaldson, 2011:4)

In conclusion being an enquiring practitioner can develop our teaching skills and professional attributes. It is important as a student teacher to research and then reflect on research. Student’s can gain confidence and knowledge from working with qualified teachers and should value their opinions as professionals. Working with others helps us improve a number of skills including our teaching technique.

My understanding of Reflection

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In my opinion reflection is looking back on an experience. I believe that we use reflection to learn and improve on an experience. If we do this our next experience can be more enjoyable. When we reflect we consider new ideas and criticise our past actions and thoughts. I understand reflection to be a critical process, and is an important part in learning. If we didn’t criticise and reflect on previous experiences we would not give ourselves an opportunity to improve. I like the quote in the video “reflection is the key to taking control of our own learning”. I hope that in future reflective thinking improves my learning and writing skills.