Analysis of Ideology in a Chosen Film - Girl Interrupted Essay

Analysis of Ideology in a Chosen Film - Girl Interrupted - Essay Example She is weak, she finds herself drawn to same sex, and depressed. During her stay in the psychiatric hospital, Susanna becomes friend with other ward-mates; a group of different women who are faced with different mental disorders. Susanna’s real life journey in finding her identity, purpose of her being and coping with her personality disorders. The story of the movie holds different themes and set of ideologies in it. Each theme tells the viewer of the reality, a different yet bitter truth that is faced by majority of the young generation and everyday life of a person who has no focus and no direction in life and how world and the society stands against that downtrodden soul. This is a true story of Susanna Kaysen which was earlier published in the form of a book under the same title. However, Susanna has tried her level best to communicate with the audience directly about the problems she was faced with in her life through this movie. This movie unveils the different hidden l ayers in the personality of a young teenager girl which represents the overall young generation and their suffering in a very well directed manner. ... ot deny the fact that culture is the basic key element in the establishment of a society however; our culture has failed to give the rights and the proper status to the young generation which has left them unfocused, directionless and depressed with a blur future. It has been clearly shown in the movie that those young children who do not get enough love from their homes and attention from their parents become the victim of confusion, distress and with the passage of time their personalities become shattered. Strong language has been used in the film which shows that how mentally unstable women use language as a medium to vent out their emotions and feelings of hate and betrayal. It is a common fact that those children who do not get attention from home become use to of using strong language in their daily life because they lack the sense of respect and grace for others and for themselves. This film describes the role of parents in this regard that how their attitude can push their c hild into insanity. It is important to understand that female children are more prone to adopt compulsive personality as compare to males. Gender Exploitation: As the title of the movie says, â€Å"Girl Interrupted,† this movie revolves around the story of a female which is a victim of gender exploitation by the society and also by the culture. It is important to understand that women are the victim of discrimination; they are provided with limited choices with no significant importance given to them by the society. In today’s world, women are faced with prejudices and gender bias by majority of groups present in the society. Similarly, in the movie Susanna is shown as a weak gender which is the victim of inequality, betrayal and harassment. Majority of women are faced with mental stress

Research Methods Into Positivism And Social Constructivism

Research Methods Into Positivism And Social Constructivism There has been heated discussion over the use of positivism and social constructivism in management research over the past few decades. And one can find that most of the theorists take a neutral view with regard to this situation. After the 1980s there has been a trend towards social constructivism but even then no one is sticking completely to the principles of one single philosophy. The main idea behind positivism is that society is an external agent and hence its properties or characteristics must be measured objectively rather than by any subjective means like intuition, sensation etc. This view was first proposed by French theorist Auguste Comte (1853) according to whom All good intellects have repeated, since Bacons time, that there can be no real knowledge but that which is based on observable facts. Hence his view has two main assumptions i.e. reality is external and objective and knowledge is based upon observations of this reality. Thus there are certain postulates of this philosophy: Independence: The researcher must be independent in his thoughts and is not influenced by any factors while observing the reality. Value-freedom: This involves deciding upon the area to be studied and how to study it. Positivism suggests doing this on the basis of objective research and not on human beliefs. Causality: The main objective of social and behavioral sciences is to evaluate the causes and fundamental laws behind the fluctuations in the behavioral pattern of people. Hypothesis and deduction: every research will be based on certain hypothesis and the observations will be made to either prove or disprove this hypothesis statement. Operationalization: The research concepts must be formulated in such a way that the facts obtained from observations can be measured empirically. Reductionism: This concept believes that a bigger problem will be easy to solve if it is divided into smaller elements which can be separately solved. Generalization: In order to make general conclusions on fluctuations in human behavior, it is essential that the research must be conducted among samples of appropriate size. On the basis of results obtained from the sample size, the researcher can make wider judgments on the whole population. Cross-sectional analysis: This kind of regularities can be easily identified by comparing the differences in the samples. All the above given implications are the collective view points of different theorists of positivism. But there were many theorists who were having contrasting opinions on these postulates too. Even Comte was not supporting the reductionism concept. Wittgenstein proposed in his past studies that all factual intentions can be broken down into smaller elementary propositions that were entirely independent from each other. He himself later challenged this theory arguing that elementary propositions can be logically related to each other (Pears, 1971). Thus this philosophy is under an unending debate among the theorists. Aiken (1956) came up with the view that positivism is the best way to find out the behavioral patterns in human beings which may be originated as a result of metaphysical speculation. The concept of social constructivism on the other hand was developed based on the works of Berger and Luckman (1966), Watzlawick (1984) and Shotter (1993). This philosophy is based upon idea that people use language as a medium for sharing their experiences and it is through this way, they make sense of the world. Hence this theory suggests that people form, create and make themselves and their worlds by means of the verbal skills. It is more concerned about the process and product peoples way of interacting with each other (Leeds-Hurwitz, 1995). It is considered as social because it focuses on the interaction rather than the individual. Hence even though there exist a clear dichotomy between the two philosophies, there exists a high difference in opinion among the researchers about the selection of methods. Therefore a number of compromising has to be done between these two philosophies in order to conduct a research. Figure: Matrix of research designs Detached Survey research Case method (Yin) Quasi-experimental design Ethnography Positivist Social Grounded theory Experimental Design design constructionist Co-operative enquiry Action research Involved The following are pure researches mentioned in the figure above: Action research: Action research cannot completely belong to pure research as it contains certain elements of applied research too. In this research, the researcher tries to be as much close to the research area or subject. This is because the researcher intends to make a direct influence for which he may make certain alterations even in the research process. The ground concept behind this research was that if one wants to know a subject well he must try to change it. This theory was widely accepted in Organizational Development where the trainers use it for enhancing the team effectiveness (French Bell, 1978; Homan, 1979). Survey Research: This is a kind of research process which requires direct interaction with the samples. If done properly, this research can give accurate information which can be highly useful in solving the research problem. Survey research gives much importance to primary data and involves systematic observation (Sapsford, 2007). Therefore this research helps to take better business decisions by which way the business activities can be handles much more effectively. Experimental design: In this research, the experimenter assigns subjects at random to a test or control group. The test group conditions are then manipulated by the researcher so as to evaluate their effect with regard to the control group who are in a normal setting. But this kind of study is quite difficult to conduct in real organizations since its not easy to obtain a captive population for the research. Quasi-experimental designs: This was developed when the researchers found it difficult to create pure experimental designs under the positivist concept. This was clearly explained by Campell and Stanley (1963), who assessed a number of designs which made use of multiple scales so as to minimize the impact caused by incomplete matching of control and test groups. Ethnography: This is a theory based on social constructivist principle where the experimenter will try to be a part of the research so as to understand the mindset of the experimental group and the meanings and significances that the samples bring in their behavior of themselves and others. Case Method: There are several research designs at present and some of them are similar to fieldwork methods while some others fall in the intermediate position. Case study method is the kind of research design which comes under the latter category. The most important deliberations to this topic were made by Robert Yin (1993). The other popular contributors to this method are Stake (1995), Eisenhardt (1989), and Hamel et.al (1993). Grounded theory: This theory is based on constructivist principles and helps the researcher to understand how he will proceed with the research. This concept got worldwide attention from the studies of Glaser and Strauss (1967). In this method, the researcher mainly has to develop a theory by means of comparative method, i.e. viewing the same event in different situations and analyzing the difference. Co-operative enquiry: This is a type of action research where all the participants of the research contribute equally to the development of enquire and show active participation in the research process (Heron, 1996; Reason, 2003). Apart from the above research designs, there exist certain other designs which can be used for management researches. The most important ones among them are critical inquiry, participant observation and narrative methods. All these methods have certain similarities with the above mentioned designs as well as certain unique features of their own. Hence they are also widely accepted in business research and used according to the requirements. 2. The different areas of research that holds high significance are: a) Research topic: Finalizing the research topic is the first and most important part of a research since it is based on the depth of title that the research proceeds (Kumar, 2005). In the broad sense, research title can be any question or problem that you need to answer or any assumption that needs to be challenged. As per the words of Powers, Meenaghan Twoomey (1985), Potential research questions may occur to us on a regular basis, but the process of formulating them in a meaningful way is not at all an easy task. In order to frame a research title, it is essential to have a thorough knowledge of research methodology as well as on the theoretical aspects of the topic. The research title can be formulated based upon four sources namely daily life, practical issues, past research and theory (Johnson Christensen, 2010). They form the initial base for the structuring of research title. Thus the research topic serves as a foundation to the research and hence if it is framed properly, the study will also move in the right direction. The research problem can vary in complexity and hence the way it is formulated determines the research approach, study design, sampling strategy, research instrument as well as many other factors. Therefore there must be certain considerations while selecting a research topic. The main considerations are interest, magnitude, measurement concepts, expertise level, relevance, ethical issues etc. (Kumar, 2005). If the research topic fulfills most of these considerations, then it can be regarded as a suitable one. b) Research question: A research question refers to the problem that the experimenter seeks to answer through the research. The research question is an essential element of every research despite of the fact that it is qualitative and quantitative. But they will vary according to the nature of research. If the research question is qualitative, then it will be intended for finding out the relationship between two variables. A variable is something which has more than one value (Vaus, 2002). Hence research questions for these kinds of researches are not much specific. While on the hand, a quantitative research question tends to more precise as it will be based on mathematical results. Business research usually applies qualitative research questions since they ask more general questions which can be used for exploring the samples views or responses on a particular phenomenon. It is usually an interrogative sentence which aims to relate two or more variables. It can be of three types nam ely: descriptive, predictive and causal. The researcher must have thorough understanding of the variables that are related in the research. These questions are open-ended, general, and over-reaching regarding an issue, problem or phenomenon. c) Research hypothesis (es): They can be referred to as tentative answers to the research questions. This is because the solution to them can be found out after statistical analysis only and hence it forms a critical step in the evidence-gathering process of a research (Guerrero Nachmias, 2010). There will be two hypotheses while conducting this process. The first hypotheses will be referred to as research hypotheses (H1) and the other one will be termed as null hypothesis (H0). The research hypotheses are formulated based upon the parameters of population but its form is different from research to research. Null hypothesis is the one set as a counter the research hypothesis. It is because every research hypothesis is set in order to prove a relationship. Hence it is necessary to set an alternate hypothesis that could disprove the relationship. For hypothesis testing, the researcher aims to disprove the null hypothesis in order to provide support to the research hypothesis. Therefor e research hypotheses are oriented towards a particular direction. This means it states whether a population mean is greater than or lesser than a particular value. d) Research objectives: A researcher intends to summarize what must be achieved by means of the research. The objectives of the study must be in alignment with the problem statement. There are mainly two types of objectives set for a research- general objective and specific objective. General objective states what the researcher intends to achieve in general terms through conducting this study. This general objective when broken down to smaller parts for better solving becomes specific objectives. Research objectives are better than research questions since they lead to higher specificity in the research (Saunders et.al. 2003). 3. A research design process that could be adopted in business researches is as follows: Web 01: An overview of the research design process This research design can be used in most management studies with little variations. This process starts with identification of research problem. Every research must have a problem which needs to be solved through the research process. Business researches usually intend to find answers to some social issues, business problem or a phenomenon. After identifying the research problem, the next step is determining the research objectives and questions. A research question is the problem or issue that the research intends to solve while research objectives tend to summarize the area that is to be achieved by the study. Hence both these factors lie in close relation to each other. The next task in the research design process is conducting the secondary research. This is done by means of an extensive literature study. This way the researcher gathers details on the theoretical aspects of the research. Hence the researcher will be searching in books, journals, articles, online databases, websit es etc for collecting the data. An appropriate methodology for conducting the research must be developed by this time. Research methodology helps in determining the research philosophy, approach, method, study design etc. All these factors are highly important for the successful completion of research. After collecting the secondary data, the researcher will look out for methods for collecting the primary data. There exist several research methods for data collection. The research instrument will be decided based upon the literature study (Taylor et.al. 2006). The most common research instruments include surveys, interviews, questionnaires, etc. In some cases, the researcher conducts a pilot study in order to obtain responses from a small portion of the population. These research instruments help to gain valid data from the samples. After collecting the primary and secondary information, the researcher decides upon the methods for their analysis. Literature review analysis is quite critical for researches as they would help in gaining insights on the core issues and provide suitable recommendations. The analysis of primary data is done by means of certain analysis techniques. The most common methods include percentage analysis, chi-square test, ANOVA, z-test etc. They help in providing empirical findings for the research which are most accurate. After obtaining the findings, they are interpreted to reach at final judgments and conclusion. On the basis of these interpretations, the researcher could provide suitable suggestions or recommendations for solving the research problem. 4. a) A survey is used for describing a population and it usually involves systematic observation or interviewing. Surveys involve what the researcher wants to find out and the answers also will be defined under a specific range (Sapsford, 2007). The most common survey instruments used in management and social researches are questionnaires and interviews. For constructing a questionnaire, the responses must be provided in a range. Hence it must have certain measurement scales. There are mainly four types of measurement scales used in surveys. They are: Nominal Scale: This is a kind of measurement scale where the objects are assigned to categories without any numerical properties. These scales have definite identity of their own but have no other characteristics (Jackson, 2007). Those variables which are measured using these scales are named as categorical variables since they try to classify the information collected. But these variables have no empirical value. Examples of variables measured through nominal scales are ethnicity, gender etc. These variables cannot be hence used in mathematical analysis. Hence these scales are considered as the lowest level of measurement since the variables are different by means of quality rather than quantity in this (Bordens Abbott, 2006). Ordinal Scale: They form the next level of measurement used in surveys. They constitute numbers which are in a predetermined order so that there will be certain relationships which can be inferred from them (Sapsford, 2007). Hence the objectives are classified into certain categories which form a rank order through a range. The data in this scale do have certain identity and properties but they dont have equal unit size and absolute zero. Interval Scale: In this scale, the measurement units are all of equal size. Therefore it fulfills the three main criteria of an ideal scale i.e. identity, magnitude and equal unit size. It forms the third level of measurement used in surveys. Hence this scale contains the characteristics of both nominal and ordinal scale but is much more effective than the other two (Malhotra Dash, 2008). Fahrenheit scale is the most prominent interval scale used. Ratio scale: This forms the highest measurement scale and has all the characteristics of nominal, ordinal and interval scale. It is the most complicated scale since it allows the researcher to identify the absolute differences between scale points as well as helps him in comparing the responses obtained (Hair et.al. 2007). This scale possesses an absolute zero which indicates the absence of variables in measurement. b. Questionnaire is the most commonly used research instrument. The main characteristics of a good questionnaire are as follows: It must be short and precise. So while framing a questionnaire, ensure that the research objectives will be met from the analysis of responses of the questionnaire. Usage of simple language: The questionnaire must be framed in such a way that the respondents find it easy to understand. Start with interesting questions: The questionnaire will include questions that will generate interest in the samples to answer and encourage them to fill out the complete form. Absence of leading questions: If there are leading questions in the form, it will encourage the respondents to answer in a particular way. But this is not considered as a good practice since the sample must not be influenced by any means in writing an answer. The number of choices wont be too long because the respondents will find it difficult to assess all of them. Hence the choice list must be small. Include simple concepts which the samples could understand. Including complicated concepts will make it a tough task for the respondents to answer the questions properly. The elements of a bad questionnaire are included below. It will have more open-ended questions than close-ended ones. This will make it difficult for the respondents to answer the questions and also their answers wont be similar. The analysis of these responses is not possible through any statistical method. The questions will be vague. The respondents will not be able to understand the real meaning of this question and this will influence their answer. The research questions are not communicated through this questionnaire. This way the questionnaire fails to serve its purpose.

The Life of Jesus Christ Essay -- Biography, world history, christiani

Jesus’ life was told through the writings and tales of his apostles which are found in the New Testament in the Bible. His ideas were unconventional during the Jewish religious establishment. There is little knowledge of Jesus’ life from infancy until the age of thirty and the mystery in the years before Jesus taught, between the ages of twelve and thirty years old. Jesus publicly ministered for approximately three years before he was killed by his own people (the priests) mainly because he was ruining their business. Everything was written from other observations of many people after his death, all saying they saw Jesus. Jesus’ ideas were spread by his apostles and disciples in the Mediterranean and Europe and centuries after his death, Jesus’ teachings have developed throughout the world today. Jesus was taken to Jerusalem after every custom feast and once he reached the age of twelve he was left in Jerusalem (Charles Caldwell Ryrie, 1976). The roots of the worship of Jesus Christ (‘Jesus the Messiah’) as the ‘Son of God’ were preached by these disciples. (Eermans, 1982). During the first few decades of Christianity, it was a sect within Judaism which was considered the "independent religion". Two elements of Christianity’s doctrine essential to the Jewish people, Jesus is the messiah, or anointed king, who is spoken of in Jewish prophetic writings. Second, the message of Jesus is the kingdom of God. Keeping with Jewish apocalyptic notions of the messiah, early Christians expected that the kingdom would be established by cataclysmic events (Charles Caldwell Ryrie, 1976). Jesus and his twelve apostles traveled from place to place teaching and healing. When the Sanhedrin heard of the teachings of Jesus being ... ...ss citizens in the city of Jerusalem. His main theme, the coming of the kingdom of God, obviously carried a destructive tone. The message of the coming kingdom of God opposed the way business was carried out by Roman colonists and aristocracies in Jerusalem. Many scholars propose that the Romans’ Pilate involved himself in the execution of Jesus because Romans were misled by Jews to see Jesus as a bad person. However, one can see that it was what Jesus stood for that got him crucified. The business in Jerusalem was for the Romans, and Jesus was not pleased with it, so there is no doubt that Romans did not like Jesus. And if one takes this fragment to be true that â€Å"It is better to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed," (John 11:50) one can believe that Jews handed Jesus over to Romans so that they might be spared from destruction.

Objective of Education Is Learning

‘The Objective of Education Is Learning' *'The Objective of Education Is Learning, Not Teaching'* *In their book,** *Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track*, authors Russell L. Ackoff and Daniel Greenberg point out that today's education system is seriously flawed — it focuses on teaching rather than learning. â€Å"Why should children — or adults — be asked to do something computers and related equipment can do much better than they can? † the authors ask in the following excerpt from the book. â€Å"Why doesn't education focus on what humans can do better than the machines and instruments they create? * â€Å"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth learning can be taught. † — Oscar Wilde Traditional education focuses on teaching, not learning. It incorrectly assumes that for every ounce of teaching there is an ounce of learning by those who are taught. However, most of what we learn before, during, and after attending schools is learned without its being taught to us. A child learns such fundamental things as how to walk, talk, eat, dress, and so on without being taught these things. But are there intrinsic barriers to learning?Adults learn most of what they use at work or at leisure while at work or leisure. Most of what is taught in classroom settings is forgotten, and much or what is remembered is irrelevant. In most schools, memorization is mistaken for learning. Most of what is remembered is remembered only for a short time, but then is quickly forgotten. (How many remember how to take a square root or ever have a need to? ) Furthermore, even young children are aware of the fact that most of what is expected of them in school can better be done by computers, recording machines, cameras, and so on.They are treated as poor surrogates ; for such machines and instruments. Why should children — or adults, for that m atter — be asked to do something computers and related equipment can do much better than they can? Why doesn't education focus on what humans can do better than the machines and instruments they create? When those who have taught others are asked who in the classes learned most, virtually all of them say, â€Å"The teacher. † It is apparent to those who have taught that teaching is a better way to learn than being taught. Teaching enables the teacher to discover what one thinks about the subject being taught.Schools are upside down: Students should be teaching and faculty learning. After lecturing to undergraduates at a major university, I was accosted by a student who had attended the lecture. After some complimentary remarks, he asked, â€Å"How long ago did you teach your first class? † I responded, â€Å"In September of 1941. † â€Å"Wow! † The student said. â€Å"You mean to say you have been teaching for more than 60 years? † â€Å"Ye s. † â€Å"When did you last teach a course in a subject that existed when you were a student? † This difficult question required some thought. After a pause, I said, â€Å"September of 1951. â€Å"Wow! You mean to say that everything you have taught in more than 50 years was not taught *to* you; you had to learn on your own? † â€Å"Right. † â€Å"You must be a pretty good learner. † I modestly agreed. The student then said, â€Å"What a shame you're not that good a teacher. † The student had it right; what most faculty members are good at, if anything, is learning rather than teaching. Recall that in the one-room > schoolhouse, students taught students. The teacher served as a guide and a resource but not as one who force-fed content into students' minds. *Ways of Learning*There are many different ways of learning; teaching is only one of them. We learn a great deal on our own, in independent study or play. We learn a great deal interactin g with others informally — sharing what we are learning with others and vice versa. We learn a great deal by doing, through trial and error. Long before there were schools as we know them, there was apprenticeship — learning how to do something by trying it under the guidance of one who knows how. For example, one can learn more architecture by having to design and build one's own house than by taking any number of courses on the subject.When physicians are asked whether they leaned more in classes or during their internship, without exception they answer, â€Å"Internship. † In the educational process, students should be offered a wide variety of ways to learn, among which they could choose or with which they could experiment. They do not have to learn different things the same way. They should learn at a very early stage of â€Å"schooling† that learning how to learn is largely their responsibility — with the help they seek but that is not impose d on them. The objective of education is learning, not teaching.There are two ways that teaching is a powerful tool of learning. Let's abandon for the moment the loaded word teaching, which is unfortunately all too closely linked to the notion of â€Å"talking at† or â€Å"lecturing,† and use instead the rather awkward phrase explaining something to someone else who wants to find out about it. One aspect of explaining something is getting yourself up to snuff on whatever it is that you are trying to explain. I can't very well explain to you how Newton accounted for planetary motion if ; I haven't boned up on my Newtonian mechanics first.This is a problem we all face all the time, when we are expected to explain something. (Wife asks, â€Å"How do we get to Valley Forge from home? † And husband, who does not want to admit he has no idea at all, excuses himself to go to the bathroom; he quickly Googles Mapquest to find out. ) This is one sense in which the one who explains learns the most, because the person to whom the explanation is made can afford to forget the explanation promptly in most cases; but the explainers will find it sticking in their minds a lot longer, because they struggled to gain an understanding in the first place in a form clear enough to explain.The second aspect of explaining something that leaves the explainer more enriched, and with a much deeper understanding of the subject, is this: To satisfy the person being addressed, to the point where that person can nod his head and say, â€Å"Ah, yes, now I understand! † explainers must not only get the matter to fit comfortably into their own worldview, into their own personal frame of reference for understanding the world around them, they also have to figure out how to link their frame of reference to the > world view of the person receiving the explanation, so that the explanation can make sense to that person, too.This involves an intense effort on the part of th e explainer to get into the other person's mind, so to speak, and that exercise is at the heart of learning in general. For, by practicing repeatedly how to create links between my mind and another's, I am reaching the very core of the art of learning from the ambient culture. Without that skill, I can only learn from direct experience; with that skill, I can learn > from the experience of the whole world. Thus, whenever I struggle to explain something to someone else, and succeed in doing so, I am advancing my ability to learn from others, too. Learning through Explanation* This aspect of learning through explanation has been overlooked by most commentators. And that is a shame, because both aspects of learning are what makes the age mixing that takes place in the world at large such a valuable educational tool. Younger kids are always seeking answers from older kids –sometimes just slightly older kids (the seven-year old tapping the presumed life wisdom of the so-much-more- experienced nine year old), often much older kids.The older kids love it, and their abilities are exercised mightily in these interactions. They have to figure out what it is that they understand > about the question being raised, and they have to figure out how to make their understanding comprehensible to the younger kids. The same process occurs over and over again in the world at large; this is why it is so important to keep communities multi-aged, and why it is so destructive to learning, and to the development of culture in general, to segregate certain ages (children, old people) from others.What went on in the one-room schoolhouse is much like what I have been talking about. In fact, I am not sure that the adult teacher in the one-room schoolhouse was always viewed as the best authority on any given subject! Long ago, I had an experience that illustrates that point perfectly. When our oldest son was eight years old, he hung around (and virtually worshiped) a very brilliant 1 3-year-old named Ernie, who loved science. Our son was curious about everything in the world.One day he asked me to explain some physical phenomenon that lay within the realm of what we have come to call â€Å"physics†; being a former professor of physics, I was considered a > reasonable person to ask. So, I gave him an answer — the â€Å"right† answer, the one he would have found in books. He was greatly annoyed. â€Å"That's not right! † he shouted, and when I expressed surprise at his response, and asked him why he would say so, his answer was immediate: â€Å"Ernie said so and so, which is totally different, and Ernie knows. It was an enlightening and delightful experience for me. It was clear that his faith in Ernie had been developed over a long time, from long experience with Ernie's unfailing ability to build a bridge between their minds — perhaps more successfully, > at least in certain areas, than I had been. One might wonder how on eart h learning came to be seen primarily a result of teaching. Until quite recently, the world's great teachers were understood to be people who had something fresh to say about something to people who were interested in hearing their message.Moses, Socrates, Aristotle, Jesus — these were people who had original insights, and people came from far and wide to find out what those insights were. One can see most clearly in Plato's dialogues that people did not come to Socrates to â€Å"learn philosophy,† but rather to hear Socrates' version of philosophy (and his wicked and witty attacks on other people's versions), just as they went to other philosophers to hear (and learn) their versions. In other words, teaching was understood as public exposure of an individual's perspective, which anyone could take or leave, depending on whether they cared about it.No one in his right mind thought that the only way you could become a philosopher was by taking a course from one of those g uys. On the contrary, you were expected to come up with your own original worldview if you aspired to the title of philosopher. This was true of any and every aspect of knowledge; you figured out how to learn it, and you exposed yourself to people who were willing to make their understanding public if you thought it could be a worthwhile part of your endeavor.That is the basis for the formation of universities in the Middle Ages — places where thinkers were willing to spend their time making their thoughts public. The only ones who got to stay were the ones whom other people (â€Å"students†) found relevant enough to their own personal quests to make listening to them worthwhile. By the way, this attitude toward teaching has not disappeared. When quantum theory was being developed in the second quarter of the twentieth century, aspiring atomic physicists traveled to the various places where different theorists were developing their thoughts, often in radically differen t directions.Students traveled to Bohr's institute to find out how he viewed quantum theory, then to Heisenberg, to Einstein, to Schrodinger, to Dirac, and so on. What was true of physics was equally true of art, architecture†¦ you name it. It is still true today. One does not go to Pei to learn â€Å"architecture†; one goes to learn how he does it — that is, to see him â€Å"teach† by telling and showing you his approach. Schools should enable people to go where they want to go, not where others want them to. *Malaise of Mass Education* The trouble began when mass education was introduced. It was necessary To decide what skills and knowledge everyone has to have to be a productive citizen of a developed country in the industrial age – To make sure the way this information is defined and standardized, to fit into the standardization required by the industrial culture – To develop the means of describing and communicating the standardized infor mation (textbooks, curricula) – To train people to comprehend the standardized material and master the means of transmitting it (teacher training, pedagogy) – To create places where the trainees (children) and the trainers (unfortunately called teachers, which gives them a status they do not deserve) can meet — so-called schools (again a term stolen from a much different milieu, endowing these new institutions with a dignity they also do not deserve) – And, to provide the coercive backing necessary to carry out this major cultural and social upheaval In keeping with all historic attempts to revolutionize the social order, The elite leaders who formulated the strategy, and those who implemented it, perverted the language, using terms that had attracted a great deal of respect in new ways that turned their meanings upside down, but helped make the new order palatable to a public that didn't quite catch on. Every word — *teacher, student, school, disc ipline,* and so on — took on meanings diametrically opposed to what they had originally meant. Consider this one example from my recent experience. I attended a conference of school counselors, where the latest ideas in the realm of student counseling were being presented.I went to a session on the development of self-discipline and responsibility, wondering what these concepts mean to people embedded in traditional schooling. To me, self-discipline means the ability to pursue one's goals without outside coercion; responsibility means taking appropriate action on one's own initiative, without being goaded by others. To the people presenting the session, both concepts had to do solely with the child's ability to do his or her assigned class work. They explained that a guidance counselor's proper function was to get students to understand that responsible behavior meant doing their homework in a timely and effective manner, as prescribed, and self-discipline meant the determina tion to get that homework done. George Orwell was winking in the back of the room.Today, there are two worlds that use the word *education* with opposite meanings: one world consists of the schools and colleges (and even graduate schools) of our education complex, in which standardization prevails. In that world, an industrial training mega-structure strives to turn out identical replicas of a product called â€Å"people educated for the twenty-first century†; the second is the world of information, knowledge, and wisdom, in which the real population of the world resides when not incarcerated in schools. In that world, learning takes place like it always did, and teaching consists of imparting one's wisdom, among other things, to voluntary listeners.

Solar Energy

A new solar powered adsorption refrigerator with high performance Meunier published a comparison of those three sorption systems for solar cooling (Meunier, 1994). The solid-gas system used in the present study is adsorption. The solar adsorption refrigerators have been developed mainly to be used in hot regions with no electricity supply. There is an urgent need in the health sector (for the conservation of medicines and vaccines). These systems have the advantage of not requiring any energy other than solar energy.Regarding performance, the highest values of COPSR (0. 10-0. 12) were obtained with the adsorption systems zeolite + water (Grenier et al. , 1988) and activated carbon + methanol (Boubakri et al. , 1992a,b; Pons and Grenier, 1987). As methanol can easily evaporate at temperatures below O oc, thus favouring the production of ice, the most environmentally friendly refrigerant must be water. Using water, ice can be produced within the evaporator, acting as a ‘cold stor age'. Both refrigerants, water or methanol, operate at below atmospheric pressure and therefore require vacuum technology. The main urpose of the present study is to obtain what is, technically speaking, a simple machine.This aim seems reasonably achievable with an adsorptive machine, operated in a 100% solar-powered 24 h cycle with a flat-plate solar collector containing the adsorbent. However, when referring to the work reported above, both the efficiency of the solar collector and that of the adsorption thermodynamic cycle could be improved. These requirements were crucial to the design of the ‘advanced' machine. The laboratory of solar energy of the Engineering school of the Canton de Vaud (EIVD, Yverdon-lesBains, Switzerland) has been eveloping adsorptive solar refrigerators since 1999. The first systems built used the adsorption pair of activated carbon + methanol.For reasons of reliability and respect for the environment, this pair has been abandoned in favour of a sili cagel + water pair. The prototype described and analyzed in this paper has been functioning since the summer of 2000 on the site of the EIVD. A thorough measurement system allows us to characterise it in a complete way. During the summer of 2001, a constant procedure of thermal load in the cold cabinet allowed us to observe the behaviour of the adsorption system over a continuous period of 68 ays. We have highlighted the great influence of both external temperature and daily irradiation upon the daily coefficient of performance (COPSR ). Previously, few articles were interested in the analysis of the storage. 2.Description of adsorption and of the adsorption cooling cycle Adsorption, also known as physisorption, is the process by which molecules of a fluid are fixed on the walls of a solid material. The adsorbed molecules undergo no chemical reaction but simply lose energy when being fixed: adsorption, the phase change from fluid to adsorbate (adsorbed phase) is exothermic. Moreover this process is reversible. In the following, we will focus on adsorption systems mainly used in cooling (or heatpumping) machines: a pure refrigerant vapour that can easily be condensed at ambient temperature and a microporous adsorbent with a large adsorption capacity.The main components of an adsorptive cooling machine are the adsorber (in the present case, the solar collector itself), the condenser, the evaporator and a throttling valve between the last two devices, see Fig. 2. An ideal cycle is presented in the D‚ ¬hring diagram (LnP vs. †¦I=T), Fig. 1. 2001). We can summarize it in four stages. C. Hildbrand et al. / solar Energy 77 (2004) 311-318 13 Fig. 1 . An ideal adsorption cooling cycle in the D‚ ¬ hring diau gram. Saturation liquid- vapour curve for the refrigerant (EC dashed line), isoster curves (thin lines), adsorption cycle (thick lines). Heating period: step AB (7 a. m. fl 10 a. m. ) and step BD (10 a. m. fl 4 p. m. ); cooling period: step DF ( 4 p. m. fl 7 p. m. ) and step FA(7 p. m. fl 7 a. m. ).Step 1: isosteric heating  ¶A ! BD. The system temperature and pressure increase due to solar irradiance. Step 2: desorption + condensation dB ! DD. Desorption of the water steam contained in the silicagel; condensation of the water steam in the ondenser; the water in the evaporator is drained through the valve. Step 3: isosteric cooling ?D ! FP. Decrease of the period of sunshine; cooling of the adsorber; decrease of the pressure and the temperature in the system. Step 4: adsorption + evaporation  ¶F ! AD. Evaporation of water contained in the evaporator; cooling of the cold cabinet; production of ice in the evaporator; readsorption of water steam by the silicagel. 3.Description of the machine tested in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland Adsorptive pair. The refrigerant is water, and the adsorbent is a microporous silicagel (Actigel SG ¤ , Silgelac). Collector-adsorber. The solar collector (2 m2 , tilt angle of 300) is double- glazed: a Teflon ¤ film is installed between the glass and the adsorber itself. The adsorber consists of 12 parallel tubes (72. 5 mm in diameter) that contain the silicagel (78. 8 kg). The tubes are covered with an electrolytic selective layer (Chrome-black, Energie Solaire SA), which absorbs 95% of the visible solar radiation while presenting an emissivity of 0. 07 in the infrared wave-lengths.A valve located between the graduated tank and the evaporator is needed on this machine. For control strategy reasons, this valve is electrically powered. 4. 5. Ventilation damper management Closing: when the irradiance goes above 100 W/m2 . Opening: at the end of the afternoon when the angle of the solar beam radiation incident upon the aperture plane of collector (angle of incidence) is above 500. 4. Measurements and operations The objective of the 2001 series of measurements was to obtain a high number of measurements continuously, in order to characterise he working of our adsorption ma chine. To do this, a system of measurement and a constant procedure of load has been established. 4. 1.Measurements The temperature is measured (probes Pt100) in the silicagel of a central tube of the collector-adsorber (7 sensors), on two condenser tubes and three evaporator tubes; and the ambient air temperature is also measured. The vapour pressure is measured by a piezogauge in the collector-adsorber, in the condenser and in the evaporator. The global irradiance in the plane of the collector is recorded by a pyranometer. A graduated tank (6. 5 1) collects the condensed water. The level of liquid water is automatically measured by a level detector. The series of measurements took place from July 25th to September 30th 2001 (68 days) in Yverdon-lesBains (altitude: 433 m, longitude: )6. 380, latitude: 46. 470). Fig. 3 shows the observed weather conditions (daily irradiation and mean external temperature).This graph shows two different periods: (1) From July 25th to the beginning of September: during this summer period, the mean external temperature is above 20 oc and the mean daily irradiation reaches 22 MJ/m2 . This fine weather period is interrupted between the 3rd and 9th August by ess favourable weather. (2) From the beginning of September to the end of the measurement: the mean external temperature and the daily irradiation are distinctly lower (13 oc and 13 MJ/m2 ). Furthermore, the conditions are very variable from one day to the next. 4. 2. Acquisition system and command 6. Performance of the tested unit A Labview ¤ program takes measurements and administers various commands (valve, dampers and load). A measurement is made every 30 s.