March 6, 2017
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Ideology and Prejudice 06/03/2017

Today’s Society and lifestyle lecture was about ideology and prejudice. I have gained knowledge about what the exact meaning of prejudice and ideology is. I feel that i understood most of the information that was provided to us during the lecture and the tutorial. However,i will still need to do further reading to gain a better understanding in this topic. Micro world and Macro world are two new words I came across today. Prejudice is a idea or an opinion (usually negative) that is not based on any facts – it is only based on an individual or a group’s opinion. When a person acts of their prejudice it becomes discrimination. For example, a person may hold a belief towards a certain race or gender (this makes them prejudice) and if they show any behaviour (such as not including an individual due to race or gender) then this becomes discrimination. Another example of prejudice could be views held by some individuals that someone with physical disability is also mentally disabled. People hold these beliefs usually due to how they have been brought up. As a child, we learn many things and accept them as facts (even though many things may just be myths). The knowledge and understanding we gain of the world around us is altered as we develop into adults. However, humans develop knowing unintentional prejudice and therefore may end up unintentionally judging an individual without getting to know them. Ideology is a collection of ideas that reflect the beliefs, values and interests of a group, system, institution or nation.

My knowledge in this topic has greatly developed today as i had never really thought deeply about ideology and prejudice before. taking part in today’s lecture and tutorial has allowed me to look at how I have developed as a person and come up with examples of ideology and prejudice in my micro world and macro world.

As a future educator, it is vital that we allow all the children within our classroom with the same opportunity and promote equality and fairness within the classroom. What i have learned today will come handy for my future placements.

I would like to further develop my knowledge on what the different theorists say about ideology and prejudice as we only briefly discussed about this during the lecture. To do this, i will be involved in using reliable sources such as books, journals and appropriate websites.

February 27, 2017
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Holmes Rahe Inventory

After completing the Holmes Rahe Inventory, I realised that I have a 50% chance of having a major health breakdown in the next 2 years. I got 176 points in this quiz. This score could be a result of many factors. There are currently many changes going on in my life including living up to the expectations of a university student and hoping to pass all the modules. I am shocked to be placed in this category as I feel that there is no major stress in my life. I sometimes get stressed out by simple things such as assessments, exams, when it gets busy at work and not completing things that needs to be done. I normally combat my stress by talking about my stress with a friend, listening to music and trying to be more organised.

February 13, 2017
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At Risk Behaviour’s In Society 13/02/2017

Image result for at risk behaviours - human

In this week’s lecture and seminars we focused on the risks individuals within society take. we started the lecture by being active and moving around. I was surprised to find out that women on average lived longer then men; former living for 81.1 on average and latter living for 77.1 on average. Factors that can affect an individual’s life expectancy are things such as personal beliefs, hereditary and behaviours.

There are several causes for deaths in both adults and young people. Adult deaths are predominantly caused due to factors such as dietary habits, cigarette smoking, alcohol use and Inactivity whilst young people’s deaths are mostly caused by motor vehicle crashes, other unintentional injuries (falls, fires, drowning) and suicide.

Risk behaviours are actions people take that place their life in a danger; it can cause injury, illness, and premature death. During this week’s Society and lifestyle group seminar, we discussed about the risk behaviours that can be prevented but still cause deaths in many young people and adults. These include:

Behaviors contributing to unintentional/ intentional injuries
Tobacco use
Alcohol and drug use
Sexual behaviors resulting in unintended pregnancy and STD’s
Dietary patterns leading into disease
Lack of physical activity

each group within the seminar were given a topic to research and present. Our group researched about the ‘lack of physical activity’.

From reading ‘The Glasgow Effect’ Document, it is clear that Scottish people are not very healthy (especially those living in Glasgow).

Whist reading the document “The Glasgow Effect”, I have come across many new information. The report aims to look at why Glasgow has one of the highest mortality rates compared to other equally deprived areas in other parts of the country (such as Liverpool and Manchester). Some aspects of the health in Glasgow are improving, however there is still a huge gap between the life expectancy between the most deprived and affluent areas. Despite Liverpool and Manchester having identical level of deprivation to Glasgow, premature death in Glasgow are 30% higher.

Poor diets of the individuals living in Glasgow contributes greatly to the rising mortality rate. The report used the SHeS data looked into how Glasgow’s dietary habits differ from the rest of Scotland. By using this data, it was identified that high levels of smoking in Glasgow is one of the reason why the city remains in a poor socioeconomic position.

This document highlights some factors which contributes in making Glasgow have one of the highest mortality rates in the UK. Some of the main reasons include suicide, drugs and alcohol misuse, poor diet, lack of exercise which links with the rising obesity rate and heart diseases.

The deprivation levels in all the cities (Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow) are the same. However, there were more women’s deaths linked to suicide in Glasgow then those in Manchester and Liverpool.

February 6, 2017
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Focus on disability – 06/02/2017

During the 4^th lecture of Society and lifestyle module, we focused on having an understanding of what disability is and the importance of having awareness of disability. I feel that as a student teacher I should have a brief knowledge about all the different support needs as this will allow me to provide my students with the support they need in future placements. Every individual has a different definition of what disability is. According to the equality act 2010, a person who is disabled has a physical or mental impairment which has a long-term effect on their ability to carry out normal daily activities. Although many people have disability from birth, there is always a possibility to acquire disability at any point in our lives.

The society we live in is very diverse; it contains people with different cultures, religions and abilities. In today’s diverse society, people hold different views and attitudes towards others who are different to them. In the past, people with disability have been treated very unfairly; in some societies people with disabilities were killed due for various reasons such as superstitions, religious beliefs and economics. However, from the 1950s the disability rights movement started and people started to acknowledge that there needs to be a change in society to allow people with disability to fit in. People who supported the disability rights movement argued that it was the society who disabled physical and impaired people.

During the lecture, we also looked into the social and medical model of disability. The social model of disability argues that it is the society’s fault that people are disabled; the social model states that changes within society should be brought in to reduce the barriers that minimize the abilities of those who have support needs. The medical model holds the opposite view, they argue that it is the individual’s fault and not the society’s.

In my view, Providing an awareness of disability within school environment is vital as it allows our students to have a understanding that regardless of the differences anyone has, every individual should be treated fairly.

From today’s lecture and seminars, I feel that I have developed my understanding of how society treats people with disability. I could relate to most of the content as it is very relevant in today’s society.

January 30, 2017
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Inclusion and equality – 30/01/2017

Today’s lecture, seminar and guided independent study were all about inclusion and equality. We started our lecture by having a discussion in peers about what we think inclusion and equality means. I found this to be helpful as I was able to think about some of the things I already knew before learning something new. Inclusion is feeling included; it applies to those who have been discriminated due to their gender, sexual orientation, ethnoracial background, abilities, age or any other characteristic. Inclusion is an antidote to exclusion and can be separated into three different levels; Individual level, relational level and societal level. Equality is providing everyone with similar opportunities; There is equality of opportunity, equality of outcome, equality of fairness and equality of condition.

Although I have gained some knowledge about equality and inclusion, I will need to look over the notes and read recommended books to gain a better understanding on this topic. I will especially need to look up what different theorists say about equality and inclusion.

January 23, 2017
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Religion, Culture and ‘Unchurched’ Spirituality – 23/01/2017

During the 2nd lecture and tutorial of society and lifestyle module, we looked at various aspects of religion and how it affects the society we live in.

I feel that I have gained a lot of knowledge from today’s lecture. However, I will have to follow up with independent study to gain a better understanding of the points discussed during the lecture.

From today’s lecture, tutorial and independent task I have learned that religions and culture can have a huge impact in the society we live in. Both religion and culture are vital in helping one to form their identity and they can influence how an individual lives their life. Every religion encourages supporting those who are less well off – this is one of the positive aspect of religion. Religion helps people to come together to tackle social problems. However, there are always some people who may misuse religion and promote violence. The violence they promote should not be associated with the religion they are as no religion promotes violence. During the lecture, we also looked into how religion may impact an individual’s life. We were given the example of how Jehovah’s Witnesses’ can not accept blood transfusions and how this can affect their health. We looked into three different scholars; Max Weber , Karl Marx and Bruce Lincolm. Weber and Marx are the extreme scholars who hold different views. We discussed further about the different scholar’s during the tutorial group task.

I understood most of the main concepts and issues from today’s lecture. However, I feel that I will need to revisit and look into detail about unchurched spirituality as this topic consisted many new terms which I had not come across before.

An area which I will require particular improvement in is how to link the scholars whilst writing essays. To address this issue, I will try to read more academic books and journals and try to make connections between the views that different scholar hold and the main concept that were discussed today.

January 16, 2017
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Religion, Society and Diversity – 16/01/2017

Religion is an important part of society which effects everyone whether or not they believe in a certain religion. In today’s Society and lifestyle module, I was involved in listening, discussing and thinking about both positive and negative impact religion has on society. I have developed some knowledge and understanding about how different people see religion. For example, a simple definition of religion is “belief in spiritual beings” but different people within the society will have different definition of what they feel religion is. I also learned that religion can be looked into from outside and inside. If we look from the inside, we look into the believer’s approach of the religion whereas if we look at religion from the outside we view it from a scholarly approach. I also gained some detailed knowledge about the different types of religion; Established religion (which is religions that have existed for a long time such as Christianity, Hinduism and Islam) a sect and a cult. We also briefly looked into how religious diversity can affect the society in the lecture and had a group discussion about this during the tutorial class.

I feel that I understood most of the content that was provided during the lecture and the workshops. However, I felt that the pace of the lecture was fast and therefore I did not fully understand some of the main concepts. I hadn’t fully understood the role of theorists and was quite confused about how I would write about them in my essays. However, this became clearer to me during the individual task that was given during the workshop.

We were provided with a lot of content during the lecture and I felt that I failed to understand some of the information that was provided to us. I plan to read the suggested books and look back through the presentation to gain a better understanding of the content that was discussed during the lecture.

I have had the opportunity to experience two different cultures and have seen the effect culture and religion can have on society throughout my life. However, I had never deeply thought about the functions religion can have within a society. From the lecture, I gained some understanding of how humans use religions to deal with life-crises and social relations.

Since religion plays a vital role in many people’s life, I feel that children should be taught about different types of religion at primary school. There is a possibility that the students within my classroom will have different religions and by carrying out experiences to explore the different religions, there will be chance for group discussions and the children with different religions will feel included.

Overall, I feel that I have gained a lot of knowledge from today’s lecture and workshop and look forward to the next society and lifestyle lecture, where I can expand my knowledge about religion and society.

December 15, 2016
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Personal Response to ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue

As part of Literacy for Understanding module, I have been involved in reading the book “Room” by Emma Donoghue. The book is about a 5 years old boy who has some good knowledge of language despite spending all 5 years of his life locked inside a room with his mum, whom he calls “Ma”. It follows the life of jack as he and his “ma” finally escape from the Room which they had been held captive in. I found it quite difficult to enjoy reading this book at the start as there were many grammatical errors and some things didn’t make sense to me. However, as the story continued, I started to understand why Donoghue has chosen to write this book in a different style. Since the book is narrated by 5 years old Jack, I slowly started to understand that the writer has carefully chosen different words and structures to match jack’s speech.

I don’t often read for pleasure which is also why I found it quite difficult to enjoy reading this book at the beginning. I find it challenging to find the time to finish a book which I have started reading, which is one of the reasons why I tend to read less.

Despite being confused whilst reading the first few pages of the book, I found the book “Room” to be very interesting. I enjoyed reading the book as It was not like any of the books which I had read before. I found the storyline to be very interesting. Since jack’s Ma was around the same age as me when she was kidnapped, I feel that I could sometimes understand the actions she takes. I would recommend this book to everyone I know who is keen in taking the challenge to read a book which a unique and challenging to understand. I would certainly recommend this book to other Student teachers as it shows how a child’s speech is developed and how environment plays a huge part in developing an individual’s language.

I found the book to quite challenging at the beginning as it was not written in a way which most of the books are written. The format of the book frustrated me and I was often put off from reading the book. Knowing that I needed to read the book for my course was one of the reasons which encouraged me to finish the book. I am glad I got the opportunity to read this book as it is definitely not a book I would have picked to read for pleasure. Having read this book, I have now started to consider reading books from different genres.

I hadn’t previously considered fictional book to be used for academic study. However, I now feel that there are some fictional book which can be used for academic study. Reading the fictional book “Room” for a university module has helped me to gain some understanding of language acquisition and development. Jack’s use of language throughout the book has helped me to understand that not every child develops in the same way.

November 7, 2016
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Reflections on Placement

As part of my first year placement at university, I undertook one week placement at a primary school. This experience has made me certain that teaching children is what I would definitely like to do in future. Throughout the week, I have been involved in supporting learning in classes, evaluating myself and my peer, communicating effectively with staff member and pupils and carrying out observation tasks.

Strengths

During my time in placement, I was involved in working with children in small groups. This experience has provided me with a chance to interact and get to know the children well. One of my strengths would be supporting the children and listening carefully to the responses they make.

Area of Most Progress

I worked in a primary 4 class which had children with mixed abilities. Interacting with these children during my one week placement has enabled me to understand that all children develop differently and have their own strengths and weaknesses. By understanding that every table within the classroom was working at a different level, I was able to use language which was suitable for each group. Interacting with the children and staff within the primary school has helped to build up my confidence at communicating. I feel that I have made the most progress in building up my confidence to communicate well with staff members and pupils.

Area Requiring Progress

An area which I need to work on is the pace of my voice while speaking to a large group; I tend to speak quicker when I am nervous.

Action Plan

I feel I need more experience in speaking in front of a large group to help me develop into a confident presenter. Presenting in front of my friends and family would be a good starting point to allow me to slow down the pace of my voice whilst speaking to a large group of audience.