Uncategorized – Rachel Fraser UWS ITE ePDP

Sustainable Development- Interdependence Blog/ Learning Log

This week’s sustainable development learning log is derived on interdependence, we acquired knowledge of this topic in a diverse method than what we normally do, firstly by participating in farm visits and secondly, we worked in groups to produce an infographic in relation to maintaining a sustainable ocean.
I found the farm visits to be rather fascinating and insightful. We visited two very divergent farms, both of which were dairy farms. The first farm that we went to was a high tech, this farm had technology for every aspect of cow farming. All of the cows had electronic tagging, that would enable the farmers to check for any problems or illnesses that an individual cow have. The cows could freely milk when they wished due to their electronic tracking how much there are milking. Likewise, the technology would pick and concrete the diet correctly for the cows depending of the time of year. The second farm was a traditional dairy farm, the cows would get milk weekly, but the difference was this farm was organic implying that in the cow’s diet there are no chemicals in the food they eat. I was intrigue by how both farm looked after the baby calves, at the high tech farm the baby calves were separated from their mother and others in an individual pen, whereas at the organic farm the baby calves were in individual pens but beside the adults’ cows, when these calves got to about 5 months they would be moved into a large pen with other calf’s and to allow interacted. This was the first time that I have ever visited a farm, but in fact I enjoyed the visits and think it would be a great idea to take future primary classes on these visits. It would allow a different dynamic of learning, making it engaging and enjoyable, likewise the children would be able to contextual were a lot of the food they eat comes from and the efforts of the farmers to ensure we have access to farm based foods and produced.

Once we can back from the farm visit I engaged with the online lecture that looked more in depth in regards to what we saw at the farms and the term interdependency. Interdependency can be defined as ‘when two or more things depend on each other in order to grow and maintain health’ (Oxford). This term has been circulating for centuries and from early culture individuals understood the importance of counting on their environment for resources, food/ water and other needs, however what they gathered was we should respect our environment in order to maintain our resources for centuries. In today’s society there are three sectors being;
• Economic interdependence
• Social interdependence
• Environmental interdependence

The follow up workshop of interdependency was rather different from usually, we worked in groups, researched sustainable oceans and created an infographic. This was a great activity as we were able to explore a range of academic reading as well as government or well establish websites, this enabled us to extract appropriate information. Initially I found creating the infographic to be challenging and rather complex, but after trailing with infographic I seen realised it was not too hard and is a great way to display information along with images. This could be an application that could be use in the upper primary, perhaps primary 7, this could be used along with ICT and another curricular area. Relating to CFE outcomes and experiences;
“I can create, develop and evaluate computing solutions in response to a design challenge”
TCH 2-15a
Overall, I enjoyed the interdependency inputs, the farm visits where great and allowed me to see how a farm worked and enabled me to consider the fantastic opportunities that farm visits would have for children. I felt I have been able to develop and consolidate my understanding of the term interdependcy and the underpinning factors this can have on the world. Likewise exploring sustainable oceans, I was able to understand the different issues our oceans are encountering, in particularly in regards to climate change.

Intergrated Arts- Visual Arts and Music 26/9/17

This weeks Integrated Arts inputs where vastly engaging. The inputs focused on the visual arts and music.

In my prior blog posts, I discoursed that integrated arts related subjects are not my strongest curricular areas, but as this module progresses I feel I am becoming significantly more confident in my abilities and my capacity of teaching the integrated arts in a classroom environment.

During this week’s visual art input, I realised that the visual arts are not concerning seeking perfection, but in fact the individual’s ability to create art work that is unique, abstract and symbolic to them. In order to create distinctive art work, we produced our own paintbrushes, we were supplied with a range of materials- a wooden stick was the bases, to design the stick there was wool, cotton wool, feathers, string and other small objects. From the outset, the art work of class inevitably would not be uniformed, however within a primary school environment pursing for uniformity can be challenging, as segments of art can be intricate and complicated for pupils. It is therefore important to allow different variation of art work that represents the individual unique skill set (Holt, 1997). Children will get great satisfaction and achievement from making their own paintbrushes, it a perfect opportunity for them to develop divergent pieces of work.

Once we created our paintbrushes, we then continued onto paint using our paintbrushes. The lecturer read out a Scottish Highland scenery that was concealed from us, the lecturer described the image using straightforward language. By using this method of delivering the lesson we rendered our own perspectives of the image and created unsystematic art work using the paintbrushes and different colour and size of paper When painting I felt some uncertainty and was hoping that the painting would turn out how I was expecting it to. Within the classroom it is important to keep in mind that art should fun and engaging for children, however as children progress through their primary education, they are more aware of their abilities in which they will often compare to their peers and also will be less eager to experiment in subject areas. ‘Some children find art and design lessons frustrating, and would be far happier if there was less mess and greater certainty’ (Kay and Stillman, 2009, p.2).

Before the visual art session, I would not normal like to paint due to the mess generated, but my view has changed, as I found painting to be therapeutic and stimulating, and I am now inclined to paint in the classroom. In order to reduce mess, it is important to have good organisation of resources, using A3 paper children will be able to make their own disposable mixing palate, likewise ensuring the desks are kept protected this can be done by drawing a boundary around the paper and using newspaper as table covers (Cox and Watt, 2007).

The focal point of the music input was understanding how to play a glockenspiel using figurenotes. Figurenotes are coloured and different shape stickers that can be used on musical instrument to represent musical notes and has matching coloured music sheets. Despite being unable to play a musical instrument I would now be able to facilitate children’s musical instrument by using figurenotes as it easy to understand and there is no need to read musical notes. Also, this week we were introduced to Charanga, a primary education website that has a range of music lessons, songs and musicals that can be implemented in the classroom. Knowing that these resources are available is giving me more confidence in relation to teaching the arts to their fullness and ensuring children are acquiring skills from the arts too.

What I assimilated from this week’s input I can relate to the Tallis Habit Pedagogy Wheel (2013), within the persistent category. Within the visual arts input I was ‘tolerating uncertainty’, as I created a paintbrush and was unsure if I had the ability to paint an unseen picture. Within the music input I was ‘sticking with difficulty’ initially I found playing the musical instrument challenging but I ‘persevered’, remained ‘focused’ and by the end of session I felt confident enough to implement within a school setting.

Music and Art provide the opportunities for children to develop their creativity and related skills. A paintbrush resembles closely to the implement that is used along with glockenspiel, therefore children could create their own individual glockenspiel instrumental stick.

References

Cox, S, Watts, R. (2007) Teaching Art and Design 3-11. New York: Continuum International Publishing.

Key, P, Stillman, J. (2009) Teaching Primary Art and Design. Exeter: Learning Matters

Holt, D. (1997) Primary Arts Education: Contemporary Issues. Guildford: Biddles

Tallis, T. (2013) Tallis Habits Pedagogy Wheel. [Online] Available: http://www.thomastallisschool.com/tallis-pedagogy-wheel-guide.html. [ Accessed on 27 September 2017]

Culture, Society and Youth

Today’s society and lifestyle inputs were based around the apparent link between culture, society and the influence this can have on youths.

Culture can be defined as the knowledge and traditions shared by members of groups/ societies that reflect their way of life such as language, religion, medical care, food, jokes, manners, celebrations and clothes. Likewise, society can be denoted as the “human relationship from a small group to a large system”, this highlights that citizens can belong to a formal group or informal group and within these group pattern of interaction form, societies/ groups can be small, large or encompass millions of members.

During the lecture, we examined in depth the meaning of youth and the theories within. Youth is the transition between childhood and adulthood which can be split into two segments

· Adolescent

· Adolescence

Youth is a general way of life, during this transitions the age range may be easily identified from the wider society due to culture patterns. The term youth is mainly used in the developing world but the meaning is constantly changing as citizen are taking more responsibilities when young. Adolescence is used to describe youth adulthood (age 18 to mid-thirties) who live independently, but are not married and have no children.

There are many evident connections that can be made to theories, society and youth.

· Piaget

· Erikson

· Kohlberg

· Maslow

Having already explored Piaget theory within literacy and mathematical development of children, I find this insightful that his theory is relevant to the social developments of youth. Piaget theory is based around observing his children cognitive developments, which enabled him to compile developmental stages.

· Stage one- Semi motor period (birth to 2 years) this is when children begin to learn how to learn, developing their language from the people they see and hear, and beginning to acquire an understanding of the world

· Stage two- preoperational (2 years to 7 years) during this period children develop there thought and thinking mechanism, they demonstrate egoism as they only have a sound understanding of their world. They pretend to play but this varies depending of culture and environment.

· Stage three- concrete operational (2 years to 11 years) this is the stage children develop abstract thought, grasping of the world and appreciate family and themselves.

· Stage four- formal operational (11 years) this means cognitive development is ongoing, as adult we still experience and acquire new skills, knowledge and still constructing a sense of the world. Adolescent being to think more abstractly gaining a greater awareness of problem solving, logically and symbolic thinking.

Overall, I found today’s inputs to be considerably insightful and I was able to gain a wider knowledge of the links between culture, society and the evolving impact this can have on youth.

Prejudice and Ideology

Today inputs where focused around Prejudice and Ideology. Before today I had a vague understanding of this topic, but during the lecture and tutorial I was able to greatly advanced my knowledge of prejudice and ideology, and the factors that underpins these topics.

I was able to consolidate my understanding of the definitions ‘prejudice’ and ‘ideology’. ‘Prejudice’ can be defined as the attitude usually negative views, that involve prejudgements of negative feelings and stereotypes that is held towards a group or individual. Likewise, ‘ideology’ can signify an organised collection of ideas that reflect the beliefs/ attitudes of a group, system, nation and institution towards others. Both prejudice and ideological views are often influenced by the humans around us, groups, culture, religion and media. These influences can by segmented into sectors- Microworld and Macroworld.

· Microworld- This is also known as personal knowledge, this encompasses the views, ideology and prejudice we acquire from our social circles, family, friends and peers.

· Macroworld- This is the scope of people we have knowledge about but have no direct contact with such as celebrities, politicians, footballers and TV, which can influence what we believe. This is term is also known as public knowledge.

· The term in-between microworld and macroworld is mesoworld.

Further to this I obtained understanding of theorist behind prejudice and the theory of social norms and conformity. Social norms are behaviours that citizens are expected to obey, which are cultural and socially accepted, social norms can vary amongst groups and nationalities, which are normally express through rules and laws. Conformity has a slightly different denotation, this is when an individual behaves in a certain way due to pressure from peers or groups, which can result in a possible punishment. There is numerous theorist involved in this facet of prejudice, for instance

· Pettigrew (1959) states we can have prejudice views and ideas but we must always obey to the rules and laws in order not to cause discrimination.

· Minard (1952) highlights that social norms influences prejudice which can progress to discrimination.

· Rogers and Frantz (1962) denotes that prejudice can develop overtime and can change if we migrate to another.

Likewise, the main theorist of ideological views is Karl Marx we contribute that it is class that control views along with religious ideologies can control what people think. He believed that all knowledge and prejudice views are socially constructed.

It is important to bear in mind that prejudice and ideology interact forming agents of socialisation which are media, family, peers, education and technology which can subsequently greatly influence our views different parts of society.

Therefore, today I felt I learnt a breadth of new knowledge which is significant to the world we are part, it always important to keep an opened mind and views. I will definitely need to devote some reading in regards to this topic in order to gain a deep understanding of definitions, theorist and subsequently relate this information to possible exam questions.

Stress Hardiness

As part of today’s input and in order to develop a great understanding of stress factors we were asked to read Pengilly and Dowd (2000) journal based on the correlation of stress and hardiness. At some point in our lives it is inevitable that we will encounter a stressful event whether to be majorly life changing or an event that requires temporary or minor change to our way of life.

The journal examines the normal transitional of moving house and retirement to be crucial life changing events, but also the unexpected life changing events such as divorce and job redundancies/ loss. The journal also focuses on the stressors that we encounter can be connected to some illness and diseases. Likewise, there is can also be links between stressful events and depression/anxiety.

The journal also explains the Kobasa definition of ‘hardiness’ to be comprised of 3 C’s- ‘control’, ‘commitment’ and ‘challenge’. In other words, ‘hardiness’ can be defined as resilient. Kobasa expounds an individual who possess ‘hardiness’ to have positive outlook on stressful events, consider themselves to have the ability to make a difference and considers changes to be good. Alongside ‘hardiness’ it is important that we have strong social support around us, with people we can trust and can seek guidance, advice and can help us during times of stress.

The principle consensus of the journal article is individuals who lack ‘hardiness’ and social support have a higher possibility of developing depression, a factor of being stress. However, there is a range of methods that can combat stress such as breathing exercises, exercising, relaxing, being organised and in general having a healthy body and healthy mind.

Holmes-Rahe Inventory

Holme-Rahe Stress Inventory Scale

After conducting the Holme-Rahe Stress Inventory the scaled conveyed that I have a “50% chance of a major health breakdown in the next two years”.

The Holme-Rahe Stress Inventory is based and scored around stressful life events that we may encounter ranging from major life change events (such as a death of a loved one, being made redundant from work, changes in financial state) and minor events that would only have a temporary implication on your life such as planning and going on holiday. The inventory requires to mark down life events you have experienced over the past year in order to achieve a score which determines the category and impacts that can have on health and stress levels.

The Holme-Rahe Stress Inventory stated my score to be 177, I was rather surprised at how low my scored transpired to. I would deem that my stress levels should have inflated over the past year due to sitting high school exams and the work required in order to get into university, however within the Inventory scale the aspects of exams and interviews is not take into consideration, implying results could be inaccurate. Therefore, over the year I feel more stress at some point when my work/life balance is not as good I struggle to find time to spend with family, meet with friends and have time to myself. However, I would not consider going on holiday to be stressful, this is a time I am able to relax and forgot about any stresses.

The Inventory identified that major stresses where ceasing from formal education and outside of university have seen extensive changes in my part-time job in which I have adopted greater responsibilities. The sector which I work within requires on-going career development and training, therefore it is important I find a good balance between university, work and having time to myself.

My Prime stress come from work and university life especially studying for exams it is important that I have strategies to reduce and combat the stresses. I enjoy to exercise and I exercise daily as I feel that I am relieved from my stresses. When studying, I listen this helps to keep me motivated and focused. Also when I am stressed I always speak to a family member who gives me advice and guidance.

At Risk Behaviours and Society

‘The Glasgow Effect’

As part of today’s input we were asked to read the document ‘The Glasgow Effect’, that looked in detail to similar income deprivation prevailed amongst Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool and the strong links that income can have on poor health and morality, however what this document highlighted was despite the three cities having the same income deprivation poor health and morality is significantly higher in Glasgow.

The main findings of the ‘Glasgow Effect’ is that there are strong and well established links between inequality and health. The document analysed income rate of the three cities to be almost identical, however premature deaths in Glasgow is 30% higher than the cities of comparison, there are countless reasons for these statics for instance behaviour risks and lifestyle. What is startling being the number of deaths in Glasgow caused by drug misuses is 2.5 times higher and alcohol misuse 2.3 times higher than Manchester and Liverpool. Drug and alcohol misuse is known as ‘excess deaths’.

As the document progress and in-depth analysed lifestyle choices such as smoking, binge drinking and eating, Glasgow percentages where majority lower compared to the Liverpool and Manchester, for instance the percentage of Glasgow that smoke is 32.5% which is lower than Liverpool population who smoke 34.3%. The static that stood out to myself was 20.7% of Glasgow eat healthy and 22.8% of Glasgow population is classed as obese, conversely 21.5% of Manchester eat healthy, but 25% of Manchester population is classified as obese.

A pivotal factor is social environment and education attainment, in Glasgow there is a higher number of the population with no qualifications compared with Liverpool and Manchester, having no education could possibly have a knock-on effect and people may become stuck in the inequality cycle, as they may find it difficult to find well paid employment, which could possible lead to income deprivation, they may be unable to afford healthy foods, join fitness clubs or socialise that could perhaps consequent in poor health.

After reading this document I found that deprivation could impact on poor health and morality, however deaths in Glasgow are more likely to be ‘excess deaths’ compared to Manchester and Liverpool. In conclusion, there is a range of problems and underlying factors that could inflect poor health and income deprivation is not a solo factor.

Walsh, D. Bendel, N. , Jones, R. , Hanlon, P. ‘The Glasgow Effect’.

Available: http://moodle.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/712075/mod_resource/content/1/The%20Glasgow%20Effect.pdf. Accessed on 13/02/2017

Are Scottish People Healthy?

I did ponder over this question as I do find it rather ambiguous and open to opinions. To a certain extent Scottish people and some are not. Some people may choose to lead a healthy lifestyle- eat healthy, eat their five-a-day, exercise to daily guidelines, drink little or no alcohol and don’t drink alcohol, some people in Scotland may lead their life in contrast.

As stated in the ‘Glasgow Effect’ some people may have no control over what they eat and exercise due to economical burdens, which could lead to an unhealthy lifestyle. It is important that local authority provide free or cheap sport facilities to promote an active and affordable lifestyle for all. Also, healthy foods are more expensive to buy than unhealthy and convince foods, which could engender people who have low incomes to buy unhealthy foods that could lead to an unhealthy lifestyle.

Therefore, as a prospective teacher/ student teacher it is important that I promote a healthy lifestyle and demonstrate this within the classroom. I believe it is important to make exercise fun and enjoyable that can be adapted to ranging physical abilities. I also believe that exercise should not be persevered just for Physical Education but can interwoven throughout the curriculum areas and some learning can be completed kinetically and moving around the classroom.

Inclusion and Equality- ‘Focus on Disability’

The focus of today’s inputs was Inclusion and Equality with a particular ‘focus on disability’. The lecture was rather insightful and enabled me to reflective on how equal our society really is. I was able to build upon what I learnt from last week’s lecture specifically the Equality Act 2010 and how this legislation can aid those with disabilities, however this act can be at times complex as it is not air type and is opened to opinions and views. Similarly, to the Equality Act there is Addition Support Needs Act 2004/2009, which is a much wider term and supports a broader range of needs- emotional, physically, behavioural, social and mental.

The aspect of the lecture I considered most penetrative was the disability right movements as it was not until the 1950’s that people with disabilities started to gain access and independence to services, however still encountered inequality whether it was at work or outside the work place. I learnt the importance of disability can be reduced or eliminated by changing society, even by making slight changes. What was striking for myself was attitudes in past years and limited changes being made for people who have impairments, only recent years have attitudes changed and thankfully our society is increasingly becoming more diverse, and more citizens with impairments are going beyond their impairments and contribute their skills, gifts and strengths to the wider society. It Is therefore pivotal as a student teacher/ perspective teacher to engage with diversity and adapt the classroom to the needs of pupils but also discuss with pupils regarding the importance of diversity and importance of anti-discrimination in our society.

Today was the first time that have heard of the term ‘Universal Design’, this alludes to the designing of buildings that considers everyone and can be used by anyone regardless of their needs. Most significantly stairs being replaced by ramps. This term highlights that diversity is normal.

Likewise, today I was able to advance my knowledge regarding key scholars: Mel Ainscow, Lani Florian, Nancy Fraser, John Rawls

Scholar John Rawls theory stood, he wrote a book about social justice which looked at the equality of those less advantaged in order to serve everyone well. He created a structure and activities that is suitable for all. He also raised the issue that decision makers should consider everyone in society and not just showing interest in individual by human diversity as a whole.

Inclusion and Equality

I thoroughly enjoyed today’s input which was based on inclusion and equality. Before today I considered myself to have a good understanding of the words inclusion and equality, however the lecture exemplified that there is a more significant in-depth definition behind inclusion and equality, and the impacts of these words on not just individuals, but society as a whole too.

Today I learnt that the term ‘inclusion’ is the state of being included within society. Inclusion involves many policies and practises that pillars diversity, opportunity to share opinions and make our own choices, connections with culture and legitimisation. I was able to gain a deeper understanding of these key words in particularly diversity which in society comprises and involves communities, being enriched with different cultures, nationalities and religion. It important to bear in mind that we are not the same, we all develop through varying experiences, we are all unique and we all contribute something different to our community and world. Also within the term inclusion it is fundamental that individual abilities are always considered and ensuring that there are flexibilities to support everyone’s individual needs in a varying of contexts. Hence, inclusion is paramount for me as a student teacher/ perspective teacher to ensure that the classroom environment is adapted to suit and involve every pupil regardless of their individual needs and abilities.

The second key term introduced today was ’equality’ which is the affirm of being equal in status, rights, fairness and opportunities. Equality is again based around involvement and adapting, but rooted upon inclusion being consistent throughout society. I learnt that equality can be treated as fairness governing so that groups and individuals are not treated unjustly and that their views are not shunned away from society and fully included in general society.

During the independent study, I decided to research Penny McIntosh privilege concept. McIntosh wrote an academic paper based upon equality among the “White Privilege and Male Privilege”, her finding where no matter gender, religion, orientations or race everyone is entitled to same and rightness opportunities, moreover everyone within society should be able to participate in the same activities without being discriminate because of the same factors above.

As a student teacher/ perspective teacher it is vitally important to demonstrate to pupils that we are all equal but unique, we all contribute something different to the world whether it is skills, abilities or culture, emphasising to pupils that we must respect and include each other regardless of gender, religion and race.

Today really did enlightened me to ‘equality and inclusion’ and I look forward to learn more about this insightful topic in next week inputs.

References

Mcintosh, Penny (1988). White Privilege and Male Privilege. Available at: http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/diversity/white-privilege-and-male-privilege.pdf (Accessed: 30 January 2017).

Religion, Culture and Unchurched

My learning of the Society and Lifestyle module continues, today’s input was based on “Religion, Culture and Unchurched Spiritually. Some topics addressed today have left my rather perplexed and I will definitely have to devote further independent study to these aspects.

The lecture focused on religion, culture and the term unchurched spiritually, today I consolidated my understanding of some facets of last week’s initial lecture. Today I learnt we acquire religion and that religion and culture inversely influence each other, conveying that religion gives us an identity and possible model a way of life, highlighting that religion can be a guidance to what we eat, wear and music we listen to, et cetera. I also learnt, in-depth, the social issues (either good or can influence problems) that can underpin religion, for instance ‘material claims’, which implies religions can encourage followers to be generous and helpful. Likewise, ‘altruism’ which is in contrast. I gained a better acknowledgment of scholars, their stance on religion/culture and their social alignment. In particularly the ideologies of Karl Marx, Max Weber and Bruce Lincoln. Further to this I understood what is meant to be ‘Unchurched Spiritually’ conveying that religion takes place outside a place of worship and the religion is not based on creed or a formed structure, this facet of religion is increasingly evolving, as ‘organised’ religion and churches decrease.

I found the concepts addressed in the lecture to be interesting and not too difficult to understand, this is in contrast to the tutorial, researching Karl Marx and the modern criticism of religion to be I discovered this to be somewhat complex to comprehend, it was rather challenging to find journals, books or academic. The main point I attained from this is presently there is not the same force or emphasis to follow a religion as there was in past centuries.

In order to advanced my understanding of the subjects of today’s inputs I will continue to look into further reading of academic journals, articles and books in addition to notes and past paper questions in order to prepare for the exam questions, but also to secure my understanding.

As a student teacher and perspective teacher it is important that I support pupils, their religion, culture and the way of life they follow, also keeping in mind that every religion is unique and have varying lifestyles.

Therefore, it is important that I continue to revise all aspects discussed today and in past lectures in order to make better sense of the topic of religion and culture, and the subsequently impact of religion and identity, ensuring I am relating my responses to scholars and their ideologies and theories.