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Ideology and Prejudice

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On the 6th of March within the Society and lifestyles lecture  we learned about Ideology and Prejudice. Explaining the term ‘Prejudice’ would give quite a complex explanation. To my understanding, prejudice are actions that are mostly always negative where assumptions or ideas are made which tend to be stereotypical towards certain groups of people or individuals. If I were to be more specific about the meaning of prejudice then it would be aimed more at negative feelings or opinions towards others all centred around a particular race, gender, sex, religion, disability, language, and nationality. These are all examples of prejudice which are commonly identified in modern society today and impact on individual’s lives massively. These judgements that are made are usually not a result of actual experience or reason.

Discrimination is usually a result of an individual acting on their prejudice too much. This results in the individuals behaviour or actions to be mostly negative which is aimed at another individual or group of people. This is mainly directed on factors such as social class, race, sex and many more. This is where there is a difference between prejudice and discrimination as someone can be prejudiced towards a particular group but do not discriminate against them.

Social and cultural literacy is very important for all individuals to experience as it gives us a feel of social responsibility and also displays active citizenship in people. Experiencing and having social and cultural literacy allows individuals to be more familiar with things such as discrimination and prejudice.

Subcultures are groups which have values and norms which are distinct from those held by most individuals in society. Culture makes up a society’s expression through beliefs and material things. There are many examples of culture such as language, ideological values, gender roles, religion and artistic expression emphasised through things such as paintings. Society directly refers to individuals who communicate and interact with a shared culture. Within every society there may be many different cultures, and also many different subcultures. Subcultures are values and norms which are unique from those of the majority and are held in groups within a wider society. Subcultures include things such as hippies, goths, bikers etc.

Social Norms are common expectations related to behaviour that are known as to be culturally and socially fascinating and acceptable. Norms are customary but lack the formal status of rules. A wide variation can be seen within these norms across societies, groups and cultures. Social Norms can also be seen to influence discrimination and prejudice in society.

Conformity and Non conformity is evident when individuals act in particular ways, this can be seen as a result of pressure from groups and this can either be real life and experiences or imagined by the individual(s).

Worldview is a set of coordinated and an accepted set of ideas which attempt to describe the social, cultural and the physical world such as the people around us in everyday life in society.

Ideology refers to a set of beliefs that are held by an individual, a group or society. This can be explained as a collection of unconscious and conscious ideas which can impact on individuals goals, beliefs, motivations and expectations within society. This term specifies to the body of rules, myths, symbols which are held by a certain group that mentors group and individual actions or behaviours.

 

 

 

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Pengilly and Doud (2000) Stress Hardiness

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There are many factors that can negatively impact individual(s) health within society, one being stress. Stress achieves a very negative impact on individuals as this often results in depression which shows that stress and depression must be linked and that they both work in turn with one another. This therefore shows that high-hardiness individuals are actually less likely to have signs of depression when stressed compared to that of low hardiness individuals.

Hardiness was also found as a factor which can negatively impact on individuals health as it was used to moderate the relationship between stress and depression. This can be said as high stress low hardiness individuals were more depressed than were low stress–low hardiness individuals. From the reading I seen that Individuals with high hardiness also had similar levels of depression regardless of the level of stress that they experienced.

Commitment was found as a factor which negatively impacted health as the conditional affects of commitment on depression was significant. This could be due to individuals having high anxiety or stress towards the thought of committing to someone or something.

Major life events such as the experience of normal life transitions that usually always happen such as retirement and moving as well as the experience o events that may not seem so normal such as divorce or job loss. The reading says how  these such major life events have also been explained as those that damage usual activities either awfully or can be very long time damage and pain. This could then result to further health complications such as chronic anxiety or depression which are also linked to further health difficulties.

Methods that can support a healthy lifestyle for individuals include self help support groups or grouped therapy where individuals can go and communicate with individuals who used to feel stressed and depressed who may have got over it and they can share experiences and how they came to improve and get over these hurdles. Another example could be support groups for individuals to turn to when in need, such as for encouragement, motivation, where it could be a non judgemental environment, with sense of trust and a need for knowledge. Individuals could set small goals so that they can improve bit by bit instead of trying to tackle it all at once which would most likely result in more stress. Within the area of commitment it would also be beneficial if individuals were educated more and  attention could be profitably paid which could result in increasing an individual’s hardiness levels so that they can handle stress and depression more significantly.

 

 

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Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory

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From completing the Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory my score was 115, therefore I fall into the category of ‘150 or less’ which means a relatively low amount of my life should change and ill have a lower susceptibility to stress or an induced health breakdown. My score of 115 actually came as a surprise to me, I thought I was going to be in the second or the third category due to how much things have changed within the past few years especially since last year. So therefore, I was happy about the category I ended up in as I did expect worse.

I would say one of the signs of stress in my life  could be university doing assignments and exams for the first time as I just feel sometimes I don’t know what is expected of me as it’s one of the first times I have ever had to produce work for university and know that it’s much more independent and  a higher quality of work is expected. In the past year, I have also experienced problems with being overly anxious and nervous when doing several things which should be fairly easy for me to do but do not feel easy. These include things such as presenting as my nerves just get the better of me, I also have a very bad habit of stressing about stress before I even have something to stress about as I overthink the situation many times in my head to the point I couldn’t be anymore stressed if I tried. I also have a sleeping disorder called narcolepsy and due to lack of sleep and my lack of concentration it can sometimes get very frustrating when coming to studying and having a fairly high lack of understanding which can sometimes just add to the stress that was already there about exams.

I can combat the stress in my life by visiting my nurse at the hospital who is specialised on narcolepsy where I can speak through things with her and also meet up with other men/women across Scotland who also have the same condition. This makes me feel more at ease as I know they understand and can contribute to the discussion effectively due to this. This allows for me to help to support these people and I know that it’s non judgemental due to them feeling the same way. I have a good relationship with my family and friends and can talk about things that may be bothering me with them and I know I can lean on them whenever I need too. Lastly I feel that including physical fitness into my routine could be really helpful for combating stress and getting time away from the triggers of stress.

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The Glasgow Effect

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The Glasgow Effect covers deprived UK cities which experience different health outcomes such as Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool. Within deprived neighbourhoods in Glasgow, premature deaths were more than 30% higher with all deaths about 15% higher than Liverpool and Manchester. This high amount of mortality was seen across the whole population, excluding the very young people but was seen in both men and women. Regarding premature mortality, mostly for men under 65 pointed at the use and consumption of alcohol and drugs. However, deprivation is not enough to explain the large number of death experienced in Glasgow compared to Manchester and Liverpool. The outcome of this shows that Glasgow, although fairly similar to Manchester and Liverpool to have worse health outcomes due to Glasgow’s socio-economic qualities.

Glasgow, along with Manchester and Liverpool all experience big amounts of poor health and deprivation. Standardised mortality ratios were figured out for Glasgow and also Liverpool and Manchester, not intentionally for age, sex and income deprivation decline in these three main cities. However, all of them were studied separately and there was only a small difference in the results between the three cities. The main causes of mortality that were identified were lung cancer, diseases of the circulatory system, injury brought on by the individual(s), suicide, deaths related to alcohol consumption and lastly drug related deaths.

When comparing Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow – results show that deprivation levels in the three cities was almost the exact same. Within Glasgow, high amounts of death was the greatest in individuals who worked from 15 years old to 44 years old and 45 to 64 years old. However, there were much higher rates of mortality within the 45 years old to 64 years old.  Cancers and Diseases of the circulatory system resulted in the higher majority of deaths. Deaths within  women In Glasgow which were from suicide were more than two times more than the females in Manchester and Liverpool.

At the very beginning of the 20th Century there was only a small difference between the three cities rates. However, a broadening gap seen rates in Glasgow improving more slowly than rates in Manchester and Liverpool. This can be seen in the years for which data are available nearer the end of the 20th Century. Therefore, this could point out that the higher death rates, The Glasgow Effect is a fairly recent event.

Health behaviours such as smoking, binge drinking  and healthy eating show that there are only small differences in commonness levels of these behaviours. Levels of obesity are also very similar throughout the three main cities. However, regarding healthy eating, binge drinking, and obesity the differentiation area is within Greater Glasgow and not Glasgow city.

Several hypotheses have been made about ‘The Glasgow Effect’. One hypothesis  is that it could be driven by components of ‘societal breakdown’ among parts of Glasgow’s population. Alcohol, drugs and suicide mortality show huge differences in the amounts of self-harming behaviours in Glasgow compared to Liverpool and Manchester that may reflect elemental societal differences among parts of the population. Some other hypotheses which have been made are cultural differences, effects of migration, genetic factors and many more.

 

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To what extent are scottish people healthy?

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Scottish people are healthy to a fair extent. It’s not fair to say that all Scottish people are unhealthy as the way individuals chose to go about their lives varies massively. When it comes to diet however, the percentage of adults meeting the 5 a day recommendation has not changed much from 2003 to 2013 with a small increase from 21% to 22% which isn’t good enough for 10 years difference. Children require many fruit and vegetables in their diets to allow for proper functioning and growth, however in 2013 children actually consumed less portions of fruit and vegetables per day than adults with 2.7 portions. So it could be said that the vast majority of Scottish people have to improve on their diets to improve their health.

Within children’s physical activity, there is a decline in activity with increased age. From 2008 until 2013, with the expectation of 2012 this was mostly seen within girls than boys. During the ages of 5-7 years old the percentage of girls participating in physical activity was high at 81%. However during 13-15 years this declined to 51%. Physical activity is usually higher within boys as the percentages for them doing physical activity were 86% and this declined to 68%.  This shows that with age there is always a decline in physical activity and this has been seen throughout the years. Within schools and at home physical activity could be encouraged from parents and teachers which could result in better health outcomes for children and teenagers in Scotland as a whole.

Health in Scotland can also be affected by the intake of alcohol consumption. A person is established as drinking at hazardous or harmful amount of alcohol if they are a man drinking more than 21 units in a  week. For women drinking more than 14 units in a week could result in massive health disadvantages.  In 2013,  slightly over a fifth which was 22% of men and 16% of women drank at hazardous or harmful levels. This therefore shows that alcohol intake in Scotland can result in later health complications or problems as people tend to ignore the amount of alcohol that should be consumed. This is also a problem as excessive amounts of alcohol could result in drink driving, premature death, drug use and making stupid decisions. However, again it isn’t fair to say that everybody in Scotland consumes too much alcohol which would have a disadvantage to their health.  These three examples of how health may be affected does point more to Scotland being unhealthy than healthy.

 

 

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Inclusion and Equality – Focusing on disability

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From the class lecture on inclusion and equality with a focus on disability, I learned about the attitudes towards individuals in society who struggle with disabilities. For example, over the centuries the way individuals with disabilities were treated often resulted in persecution and extermination. I learned that the Equality Act of 2010 stated that individuals with a disability had mental and physical deterioration, resulting in massive and long lasting negative experiences and effects on the individual’s capacity to contribute in normal activities day in and day out. However, this started to change  slightly after the introduction of the Disability Rights Movement which seen the development of medicine, which meant there were a higher percentage of individuals surviving through these illnesses, injuries and diseases.

Yes, I do understand the main concepts discussed within the lecture and could evidence the knowledge I talk about to back up my claims. For example I could talk about the way in which individuals were isolated massively and the way they were badly treated many centuries ago from several events that happened. An example of this being in Nazi Germany where individuals with disabilities were persecuted. I could then go on to explain how there have been small but some changes overtime within society towards people’s opinions about individuals with disabilities. I could refer to theorist’s work who have studied disability in depth to also back up my claims. One other thing which could also be quite helpful, would be referring to the medical model and the social model which are different opinions and approaches towards others who experience disabilities within their lives. This being the medical model which portrays the message that disability is a problem, and so the end goal within this model is that individuals who suffer from disabilities have to be ‘fixed’.  Also, the social model follows the message that mental and physical limitations are part of human diversity and so individuals with disabilities shouldn’t be regarded as a problem to society.

There aren’t really any concepts that I don’t understand from what I learned today as I think most things are quite straightforward and much easier to put your head around as there isn’t loads of separate aspects so Is less confusing than some others we have looked at within society and lifestyles. However, I do think my understanding could be slightly better as a whole just so that I’d be fully confident when answering an exam question based around equality and inclusion with a strong focus on disability. I will improve on this by doing further reading, researching, reading variety of viewpoints and studying before the exam.

I feel I already have quite significant knowledge on disability and how individuals may be isolated or affected by it in society. If I had to pick something I struggle with understanding, is why some health conditions and other forms of conditions have the label ‘disability’ on it as there are several conditions where It is unclear whether that should be regarded as a disability and some may feel embarrassed or disagree that their condition means they are disabled and don’t like it to be labelled as that. This could in turn lead to upset and controversy due to a variation of opinions on what is regarded as disability and what isn’t.

Learning about inclusion, equality and focusing on disability is very important in relating to possible career opportunities as everyday teachers are presented with children who may experience a disability impairment and who may need extra attention or support. It is important to understand how to approach these children, how to support them, help them and how to make the most of their development of learning. It’s vital that this individual or several individuals who may struggle day in and day out feel like they aren’t any different, and that they aren’t isolated so to alleviate any problems that may occur emotionally. Children should feel equal and at ease within learning and so having the knowledge and understanding would allow me to make sure I was prepared to support all individuals.

 

 

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Inclusion and Equality

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From the lecture on Inclusion and Equality, I learned that inclusion is simply including individuals within a group or structure, allowing them to voice their own thoughts and opinions and for everybody to discuss their various different perspectives within society. Within inclusion there are three levels which all mean something fairly different. I learned from the lecture that inclusion is of high importance in society as if there is a lack of inclusion this can result in oppression. Individuals that are more advantaged in society do not have the ability to put themselves in the more disadvantaged individual’s shoes as they do not have to deal with such realities day in and day out. Also from the lecture, I learned that equality means being equal with other individuals in society especially within rights or opportunities. I believe that each individual should be treated equally regardless of their religion, race, disability etc.

Yes, I do understand the main concepts, theories and ideas which were covered, although I do think it was a lot of information to take in from a two hour lecture as there are various elements within just inclusion and even more within equality. I do have a greater understanding about equality than inclusion as in High School, equality was discussed a lot throughout class lessons. I can evidence my knowledge from the lecture by again reflecting on the information I have learned,  I can read the recommended reading which will give me references which could be used and refer to various theorists work who have studied and gave in depth detail surrounding the main aspects within inclusion and equality.

There aren’t many concepts and theories within this that I am struggling to understand. However as there was a lot of information given on this day, looking over the information could help me to gain more knowledge and to display my understanding of equality and inclusion much more effectively within an exam question. Also as said above, the recommended reading books within this section would allow me to adapt on my understanding and will give me the opportunity to back up what I am saying with them as references.

My skills have developed slightly within this module as its gave me a greater understanding into concepts I have never studied in depth before. It has allowed me to see how certain actions, beliefs and behaviours result in certain circumstances within society such as individuals being very isolated within inclusion due to them having disadvantages that they have to cope with in their everyday life situations. This could also link in with equality as nowadays in society if you are even slightly disadvantaged, individuals can judge you and isolate you which is a problem that’s pretty much widespread.

The only skills I can really think of that may need improvement is my ability to piece everything together so that if an exam question came up about inclusion and equality I could write a full answer which makes sense and isn’t fuzzy. Sometimes I lack the ability to have a good understanding and understand some aspects so much more than others. For example, within equality there are many examples such as equality of opportunity, equality of outcome, equality as fairness etc. I find it much easier to focus on equality and the main thing what it means within society and find it difficult knowing what other aspects to bring up would create the biggest impact when answering this type of question. To address this again I think the most effective thing would be to just do further reading and read over my notes as a greater understanding will most likely give me the ability to answer with more full and good answers.

Past experiences influenced my thinking and decision as there are many things I have struggled with in the past within in school and never thought id be able to understand it. From studying, getting advice, asking questions and doing further reading I was able to have a good level of understanding to pass exams which I think could be adapted to this module within the exam so I can hopefully pass.

This relates to possible career opportunities as within primary schools children are taught about equality and human rights as these are important aspects to understand within society. Learning this will help me adapt my knowledge and understanding to class lessons and I will be able to help children throughout their learning. Also when having the role of being a teacher, it is very important that you try to include as many children as possible so that all children are at ease within the classroom and are not isolated or completed excluded. Equality is also extremely important here as I should treat each individual the same, regardless of disadvantages they may face which may affect their behaviour, ability to communicate and ability to learn compared to the more advantaged children in the classroom. I should recognise individual weaknesses and strengths within each individual child but never use the weaknesses against them or to judge them, just to simply be there to support them and to hopefully make learning simpler to understand for them. I know when I was in school I was never good at maths, and some teachers used to really isolate me for this. I know I didn’t like that so the most important thing is to treat each individual equally and fairly.

 

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Religion, Culture and ‘Unchurched’ Spirituality

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From the lecture I learned that religion shapes culture and culture shapes religion within society. Religious culture can be recognised as a form of identity through things such as the music people listen to and what they choose to eat. There are many claims within religion, culture and social issues such as material claims whereby over time communities within religion have helped people in need with material resources and supporting those in need. There are also spiritual claims within religion which provides a ‘spiritual community’ for its followers. Also from the lecture I learned about ‘unchurched’ spirituality which are ways of spirituality that are unrelated with religions that are organised and is not based on spirituality within the churches.

From the tutorial I learned more about the criticisms of religion as culture and looked at various different theorists such as Karl Marx who limited religion to socio-economic causes. He referred to religion as the ‘opium of the people’. An argument strongly supported by Karl Marx was that religion is not important due to God being ‘man made’.

I understand most of the issues and concepts discussed, however could have a greater, more in depth knowledge which I can improve by doing further reading. I can evidence this knowledge by referring to theorists who have various arguments against or for religion to help me back up what I am writing about when it comes to answering exam questions.

There are a few concepts and issues that I am struggling to understand such as the different religion, culture and social issues as I feel they are quite complex and will take me a while to get my head around. However, I do think my understanding of this could be improved by reading the information over and over again which will give me the chance to put all of the information together.

My knowledge and understanding in this area has developed by having an insight into theorists work and how they would describe religion in their own way. I learned that secularisation contributed to the event of ‘unchurched’ spirituality which resulted in a decline in religiousness and a declining church membership. I could address areas that may need improvement such as the characteristics of unchurched spirituality and the criticisms of unchurched spirituality by studying and doing further reading out with lecture and tutorial notes.

What I have learnt relates to my general understanding of how using religion as an example impacts on people’s lifestyle because religion is part of your life and values and can affect the way an individual may behave due to their opinions. Possible career opportunities as a future primary school teacher on the things I have learnt could be helped by my understanding and knowing background knowledge based on religion to contribute to class lessons which may involve learning about religion. This would be invaluable to have this knowledge when children may struggle and ask questions about the way in which different religious celebrate things such as Easter and Christmas or when doing a nativity play or anything else related to this subject.

 

 

 

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Religion, Society and Diversity

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From the lecture on Religion, Society and Diversity I learned that when studying religion in a social context it can be complex due to religion being a very complex aspect. We looked at the various ways in which certain people would describe ‘religion’ such as Anthropologists, Sociologists, Historians and Theologians which provided me with an insight into the many different ways ‘religion’ can be approached. I also learned that religion from the ‘inside’ which is referred to as the ‘believer’s approach’ relates to the study and practise of one’s own religion, this approach guesses that the faith or belief in question is correct and immutable. From the lecture, I also learned that religion from the ‘outside’ which can be referred to as the ‘scholarly approach’ relies on a neutral view of religion and points out the outward and visible aspects of religion.

From the tutorial I researched Emile Durkheim, from this I learned that he was a French psychologist and Philosopher who was born in April 1858 in France and died in November 1917 age 59. I learned that much of Durkheim’s work was concerned with how societies could continue their integrity and coherence in modernity. From the tutorial I also learned that he believed that there was something real in religion and he wanted to understand how religion comes to be what it is and also what it does.

 I understand most of the main concepts and issues of the topics and areas I have learnt today and I could back these up with evidence of knowledge from Anthropologists looking at the works of M.C.F Bourdillon, A.R. Radcliffe- Brown and also Bronislaw Malinowski to develop further my knowledge and understanding. However, there are some concepts and issues that I am still slightly confused with as to how you would include these in a religion question in the exam and what aspects of religion to specifically target. I could research and read into further reading to help myself understand aspects that may be more important and relate to questions better. I also believe that understanding the impacts all aspects of religion has on society and putting that all together would help me to further understand this better.

I already had an understanding about some religions, and knowledge about some from studying it as a subject in High school. I didn’t have to relate to any Anthropologists it was more different religions viewpoints so the lecture and tutorial gave me better knowledge on the different things each individual Anthropologist and various others thought about religion and their views towards it. At school I studied Christianity and Sikhism and it was interesting to see the different religion’s ways of life and how they contributed to society. I also had to back up my knowledge with quotes and evidence from Humanists, Roman Catholics, Christians and Sikhs. I could improve on trying to find a link between all the different information regarding religion so when it comes to the exam it’s clear in my head what I would write when that question comes up and that it isn’t fuzzy which could lead to confusion and not knowing how to approach the question.

What I have learned from the lecture and the tutorial relates to my general understanding of how using religion as an example, society impacts on lifestyle as religion can create massive religious diversity in society such as within the work place. This could result in changes being made to working schedules to suit temporal and different holiday patterns of people belonging to religious groups which could create conflict between workers as they may feel that is unfair. There are also many other aspects of religious diversity in society today that brings in competition and disputes between groups such as a disagreement in religion or not knowing enough and making a viewpoint which is open to controversy. From the things I have learned from the lecture and tutorial,  I could in the future or on placements integrate this into a class lessons with children in a Primary School when learning about religion and culture, religious diversity and religion and social issues as a whole.

Overall, I think I can improve by reading notes over again to allow myself to understand it all a bit better and make links between the different concepts and issues discussed to come to an overall and good level of understanding.

Professional Goals and Reflection on Placement

Reflections On Placement

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Throughout my first placement I observed a range of literacy and mathematical class lessons so I could gather information to complete the eight observation tasks.  I interacted with pupils in the classroom, and with teachers in both the classroom and the staffroom. I supported learning within a variety of different classes throughout the school and demonstrated effective communication skills. During my time at placement, I was given the opportunity to evaluate my communication skills and my partner also had to peer assess me. My placement was a positive experience and I did not have any obstacles to overcome.

Strength

One of my main strengths that I demonstrated on my first placement was having good eye contact when communicating with adults and children in the classroom. I demonstrated good eye contact with children at the beginning of my placement experience when I sat down and listened to a group of primary 3 children preparing for reading. The children were predicting what the book was about by looking at the front cover and the blurb before reading, the children were given the opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings on the book with me. I ensured that I gave eye contact to each child as they expressed what they thought the book was about and then I listened to them reading their books and helped them with any words they were struggling with.

Area Of Most Progress

My area of most progress on my placement visit would be trying my hardest to speak at an appropriate pace when talking to children and trying to further improve my communication skills by engaging in a range of different ways. When I am nervous, I always tend to speak really fast and I sometimes forget that it could be hard for people to understand, especially younger children who’s understanding would not be as advanced and they are less likely to understand what I’m saying.

Area Requiring Progress

An area requiring progress from my first placement would be gaining more confidence when speaking to a large number of people and learning how to make use of gestures more often such as hand, face and body to enhance my contribution. This would make class lessons or presentations appeal to a wider range of people and make learning much more effective. I realised on placement that although I do use some gestures, more could be included into my communication.

Action Plan

I have to practise speaking slower in conversations and I will practise to family members or friends so that I can gain more confidence when speaking to a larger group of people. I could also practise using more hand, face and body gestures within communication. I will try more to put myself out of my comfort zone which will give me more confidence when speaking in front of large groups of people.

 

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