Research Proposal (general research proposal for doctoral thesis to Essay

Research Proposal (general research proposal for doctoral thesis to the graduate department) - Essay Example My research during the first year of my master's program at the University of Victoria covered multiple topics within non-photorealistic rendering (NPR), graphics, and animation. During the course of my research, I completed a class on perception and graphics that resulted in a project that will be submitted this month for the _(name of journal)____, a reputable __enter subject__ journal . The project involved the study of human vision and perception and prompted me to expand my topic of NPR with perception into the formation of my master's thesis. My master's thesis titled, "Perceptual Imitation of Human Drawn lines" involved study within the areas of Newtonian Physics, Image Processing, and Artificial Intelligence. From my research and findings with this thesis, I intend to publish two papers in NPAR'08 and CAE'08. Therefore, for my doctoral study I wanted to get more in depth in my research in these particular topics. First, I would like to expand on the subject of lines to full animated cartoon character images. Image processing is naturally an essential field of study in NPR and will play a major role in my thesis. Also, image processing will lead to more critical study of perception. The study of perception falls into the area of psychology. Surprisingly, psychological research on NPR is limited. It was briefly discussed in my master's thesis.

Models of Supervision Essay Example for Free

Models of Supervision Essay Frameworks from various psycho-therapeutic orientations and professions can be integrated into this model’s broad context. Supervisee developmental stage (m. 4) is catered for as, with experience, progress from lower to higher levels is enabled, in response to their pressing concerns. Identification of supervisee strengths is facilitated, encouraging positive feedback and affirmation, conducive to the supervisee’s willingness to divulge both negative and positive aspects of their work and their commitment to continued development. Practice characteristics requiring attention are identified, thereby providing a focus for the supervisor’s interventions to encourage improvement and growth (m. 4). This guide is useful as it raises awareness of all pertinent levels. Other frameworks inherently place disproportionate emphases on certain modes with some completely ignored. This model promotes balanced supervision as each mode is weighted equally over time. The implied hierarchy relates to the supervisor’s responsibility to attend to all levels. The supervisee provides the client’s primary care, but protection of rights and well-being is ultimately the supervisor’s responsibility (Helsel, 2012). This hierarchical responsibility is explicit (Hawkins and Shohet, 2002). To ensure quality care, the supervisee (m. 4) acknowledges the importance of on-going enhancement of professional knowledge and competencies (Carroll Gilbert, 2011). Reviewing the supervisee’s application of theory, by exploring techniques utilised (m. 2), is one of the supervisor’s responsibilities to support the supervisee’s professional development ((Helsel, 2012). Obtaining consent and ensuring confidentiality of personal information (consent documents, case notes and recordings) is mandatory (Helsel, 2012). To ensure transparency, an awareness of how the process functions and informed consent is necessary (Helsel, 2012). With the assurance of confidentiality, trust and enhancement of both therapeutic relationships may follow. Within the broader work context (m. 7), it should also be established to whom the supervisor reports regarding the supervisee’s capabilities (Carroll Gilbert, 2011). Appropriate supervision documentation can facilitate professional growth and development of both supervisee and supervisor (Helsel, 2012). Aspects to be included are: client status and progress (m. 1), supervisee interventions (m. 2) and supervisor input and guidance (m. 5, 6). The focus on organisational requirements (m. 7) and potential legal demands is addressed. Maintaining professional boundaries to avoid dual-relationships, conflicts of interest and subsequent exploitation of client trust is mandatory (Nichols, 2011). Any relationship that diminishes the practitioner’s ability to remain objective, exercise good judgement and avoid bias is deemed inappropriate (Helsel, 2012). This is addressed in the organisational context (m. 7), with implications for the supervisee-client (m. 3) and supervisee-supervisor (m. 5) relationships. Axten (2012) portrays these relationships as covenantal which implies a fundamental pursuit of respectful and trusting beneficence. The obligation to ensure quality care has several implications. Firstly, practitioners should offer services within the boundaries of their competence (m. 4 6). If enhanced understanding of factors including cultural or socio-economic (m. 7) is required, additional training or supervision should be sought (m. 4 6) or appropriate referrals made (Nichols, 2011). If professional duties are impacted by personal issues, professional assistance may facilitate resolution or termination of services maybe necessary. This model explicitly and comprehensively highlights the ethical considerations of supervision. These can all be addressed within process-oriented supervision (PS) but the definitive guide that the 7-eyed model provides is absent. Essentially, PS focuses on raising the supervisee’s awareness of their experiences and conceptualisations of the client and their issues, which are used to promote new personal insights, which enhance therapeutic skills (Richardson Hands, 2012). A number of skills are used in this process. Initially, the supervisee’s awareness of the client’s process is raised to encourage exploration of identities and roles played by each and the skills involved. Richardson, 2012) Strategies, including role-playing the absent client, allow replication of a parallel process, which facilitates emergence of client-supervisee dynamics, which can be subsequently explored. The individual’s acknowledged identity, the primary process, is explored for both client and supervisee. Identifying which channels the supervisee predominantly uses provides additional clues, as stuckness is generally resolved in under-utilised channels (Goodbread, 1997). The identity distanced from the individual’s awareness is the secondary process and is separated from the primary by an edge (Diamond Jones, 2004). This interrupts the flow of therapy due to the tension between release and change and manifests as atypical reactions. Exploration of all these will enhance the supervisee’s awareness, allowing new insights to emerge, which can be utilised to inform therapeutic skill, with possible replication and flow-on effects for the client. The supervisor’s role is to establish a positive feedback loop, connecting and reinforcing these elements. Richardson and Hands (2012) summarise this as: â€Å"The use of process-oriented supervision skills highlights a holographic meta-analysis where the sum of the parts is not only greater than the whole, but the parts and the totality of the whole contribute to further replication in other levels and systems†. (P 179) In the PS session witnessed, from within the supervisee’s story, a parallel process emerged. The client’s softer, nicer and more vulnerable process contrasted with a secondary process of strength and dominance and was mirrored in the supervisee. The tension and discomfort that existed between these, the edge, constituted the focus that was brought to supervision. Replicating the parallel process, enabled clarification as the supervisee had initially struggled to define her issue. The raising of the supervisee’s awareness enabled new insights to be generated which were used to inform her future approach. The feedback loop with new found skills was established. The overall approach was highly valued by the supervisee. Additional resources and strengths were revealed despite the non-attendance to goaling, exceptions, and coping strategies. Freshly acquired insights were relevant to the supervisee, both personally and professionally which enhanced their integration. This denotes another key feature of PS, a departure from other models, as the boundary between professional supervision and personal therapy is considered impossible to define (Richardson Hands, 2002). The attraction of the seven-eyed model is its applicability across many psychotherapeutic traditions. Social constructionist approaches integrate easily as many of these skills were utilised in the observed session. These included externalising, identifying exceptions and resources, preferred future descriptions and outside witness. Goaling identified the impact of the supervisee’s workplace anxiety as the focus. Questions exploring the supervisee’s current experience and identity (m. 4) were used. As a domestic violence worker, she regularly works with severely distressed individuals and a possible parallel process with transference of emotions onto the supervisee may have occurred. The supervisee’s unconscious reactions, her counter-transference, were explored with the intention to enhance her ability to respond, instead of merely reacting. Landscapes of action and meaning questions were utilised here and throughout the session. The focus then shifted to the supervisee’s experience and conceptualisation of the client (m. 1). The therapeutic relationship between supervisee and client (m. 3) was investigated using various techniques including outside witness’ perspective. Approaches and strategies utilised (m. 2) and the client’s responses were explored. These were placed within the wider context of the supervisee’s work (m. 7), using preferred future questions. Mode 5, the supervisory relationship and the supervisor’s own process (m. ), weren’t’ definitively explored, which is understandable as this was an isolated session for academic purposes. The adaptability of the model was evident as the strength-based approach evoked the supervisee’s exceptions and resources. Flexibility allowed unequal attention across modes, which enhanced responsiveness to the superviseeâ €™s needs and collaboration. The opportunity to observe various supervision models has highlighted the importance of remaining open-minded and willing to experiment with alternative techniques and approaches. To best meet client needs through the supervisee, having a choice of strategies and flexibility in application, will enhance my ability to remain effective and responsive. The seven-eyed model, with its inherent emphasis on relational and systemic aspects, provides a valuable, adaptable scaffold, upon which my approach to supervision will be based. Techniques from many orientations can be incorporated to accommodate supervisee strengths and needs, to ensure supervision is not done to but with the supervisee, which benefits their professional development. Also, understanding of new information is enhanced when integrated with existing familiar competencies and knowledge (Friedman, 1997). The seven modes provide a broad range of issues, enabling their identification and subsequent address to enhance supervisee development. Modelling multiple-perspective approaches may encourage the supervisee to mirror this in therapy, which may transfer to the client. Viewing issues from alternative perspectives often delivers therapeutic benefits as stuckness may transform into resolution with an accompanying transfer of skills. This would be conducive to development of the supervisee’s capabilities of reflection and thereby enhance their practice. The seven-eyed model, incorporating narrative and solution-oriented approaches of social constructionism, will be central to my approach. However, despite identification of exceptions, strengths, resources and coping strategies, issue resolution on a deeper, perhaps more personal level may sometimes be sought by the supervisee. PS skills will be utilised for these interventions, for when supervisees struggle to delineate the problem’s essence and may also prove useful in divising complementary solutions. The approaches of other models encourage alternative conceptualisations of issues and may be utilised to generate the supervisee’s news of difference required and promote flexible cognition. The world’s leading athletes require commitment, flexibility and strength. To become a skilled supervisor, having an extensive, strong theoretical base and grasp of technique, combined with flexibility in applying both and remaining open-minded to alternative approaches, may facilitate this continuous process. Modelling this as supervisor, will hopefully transfer to the supervisee and also inform their practice.

Importance of Teacher Interaction with Learners

Importance of Teacher Interaction with Learners In order to facilitate learning activity in the classroom a teacher must have a clear knowledge of who learners are. In general, a learner is an individual who engage him/herself in the process of acquiring new knowledges and developing varieties of new skills. A learner can be found wherever a learning process takes place between two persons or among a group of people. In the context of schooling a learner is a child who can be a student of primary, middle or secondary school and their utmost and primary duty is to learn. In whatever age or stage the learner is at, there are some learning theories which classifies the types of learning patterns and thereby the learners. It is believed that learning has no age restrictions and it begins ever since the child starts to talk and recognize. However, the theories involve the social, psychological and creative contexts. What we consider as progressive education was first conceptualized by John Dewey in the late nineteenth century. According to him, the learning process proceeds mostly in a socio-cultural manner and provides a meaning and proper direction in developing instincts in the individual (Dewey, 1987). Albert Bandura also believes that learning occurs from socio-cultural observations (learning through observation which is also identified as observational learning) whereas scholars like Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger that learning and acquiring the knowledge from it happens at the same time when these are being practiced in communities (Lave and Wanger, 1979), and through inquiry (Garrison and Kanuka, 2004). Randy Garrison and Heather Kanuka, also had similar vision in actualization of knowledge. Paulo Freire considered learning not only occurring from the socio-cultural context but also individuals contribution towards it. A group of psychologists in the early twentieth century proposed a behavioral approach to describe the learning process (Stewart, 2013). Famous philosophers such as Ivan Pavlov and psychologist B.F. Skinner identified how habitual response or instincts are being learned by the animals using rewards or acts with certain behavior (Pavlov, 1971). Behavioral theory is connected to an outcome based approach when these are being applied in the classroom. This kind of learning in most of the cases are implemented in Preschools. In such environment, the classes are oriented in such a way to establish certain task and the curriculum is also designed to achieve the goal through behavioral instincts of the children. According to Jean Piaget learning starts from knowledge which is gathered by different kind of experiences from the surroundings. These set of experiences can only be managed by the skills present in leaners stage in development. These theories mostly focus a series of constructivism which is defined as cognitive constructivism. This theory consider that knowledge is actuated internally on a person rather than imposed and after that it is organized into schemata, or the set of structures of individuals understanding through which an individual develops his/her sense of the universe. As soon as the schemata internally forms, understanding occurs. David Kolb had discussed on figuring out the place of various kind of learning in his proposed empirical study of learning cycle (Kolb, 2014). He believes that learning initiates via experimental or feeling stage. This is a stage in which information is obtained from experience and then it is analyzed or decoded to extract further information. The information is then spread in the public or other discussed on interpersonal domain in case of its occurrence in social environment. During the watching stage, leaners step back from the experience and start to pull out meaning from it. For accessing embedded information, the effective domain plays a vital role. It also brings out the subconscious understanding of the information, or the thinking stage. At this stage, relevant information from though out from instincts or other sources can be entered the cognitive domain to justify the validity of the information. Afterwards, the information can be actuated into practical domain, which can be considered as the doing stage. Learners acquire different skills and strategies to obtain result from the valuable information.ÂÂ   This information processing system can be characterized by several cognitive approaches. It also pinches the way individual reacts to different type of ideas, information or experiences obtained from others. A cognitive style recognizes the way a person is focusing on certain parts (an analyst) or the entirety of the event (a holist) or if he is engaging others using words (a verbalist) or visual effects (a visualist) (Stewart, 2013). Each type of learning types also lends themselves towards various kinds of processing mediums. A verbalist, for example, tend to use his oral and written skills of communication to resolve a problem as an accommodator (Kolb, 2014). This also stimulates him to be an activist by the social environment (Honey and Mumford), through collecting and actuating socio-cultural knowledge as it is obtained via oral channel and social interactions as described b y the Kold Biglan model. There are also classifications in the learning style, for example, learning personalities (Dilts, 1995) which reflects the way the learners will to learn, and different sorts of intelligences (Gardner, 1995) which explain the way the learners will improvise and flourish. Such intelligence can be logical, kinesthetic, musical, spatial, verbal, intrapersonal, naturalist and interpersonal.ÂÂ   A learner does not always fall into a cognitive learning style, but reflect a combination of learning preferences to different degrees. References: Bandura, A., Walters, R. H. (1977). Social learning theory. Catania, A. C., Laties, V. G. (1999). PAVLOV AND SKINNER: TWO LIVES IN SCIENCE (AN INTRODUCTION TO BF SKINNERS SOME RESPONSES TO THE STIMULUS PAVLOV'). Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 72(3), 455-461. Dewey, J. (2007). Experience and education. Simon and Schuster. Dilts, R., Epstein, T. (1995). Dynamic learning (Vol. 426). Cupertino, CA: Meta Publications. Gardner, H. (1995). Reflections on multiple intelligences: Myths and messages. Phi Delta Kappan, 77(3), 200. Garrison, D. R., Kanuka, H. (2004). Blended learning: Uncovering its transformative potential in higher education. The internet and higher education, 7(2), 95-105. Kolb, D. A. (2014). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. FT press. Piaget, J. (2000). Piagets theory of cognitive development. Childhood cognitive development: The essential readings, 33-47. Sharp, D., Cole, M., Lave, C., Ginsburg, H. P., Brown, A. L., French, L. A. (1979). Education and cognitive development: The evidence from experimental research. Monographs of the society for research in child development, 1-112. Stewart, K. L., Felicetti, L. A. (1992). Learning styles of marketing majors. Educational Research Quarterly, 15(2), 15-23.

Ezra Pounds In a Station of the Metro :: Ezra Pound Station of the Metro Essays

Ezra Pound's In a Station of the Metro Before this week, I had never read any poetry by Ezra Pound. I noticed immediately that many of the poems are very short. "In a Station of the Metro," for example, is two lines. In the essay "Imagism," the second rule of imagistes is said to be "to use absolutely no word that did not contribute to the presentation." I think this rule helps explain why some of Pound's poems are so short. Obeying the second rule of imagistes will be harder the longer the poem is. This rule, however, does not seem to me a rule of imagistes alone, but of most poets from all eras. I don't think many poets could be found who would say that they try to use superfluous words. Just because a poem is longer than a few lines doesn't mean the poet is being long-winded. I think the vast majority of poets would say that they only use necessary words in their poetry. Of course it could also be said that words that seem superfluous do actually "contribute to the presentation." I have a hard time with letting Pound c laim this rule as one of the imagistes only.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Besides it's length, "In a Station of the Metro" was a poem I read with interest because it is on the syllabus as one of the poems to read carefully. I thought it strange that I was supposed to pay attention to this poem. Truly, it initially struck me as the kind of poem that I tried to write in elementary school. Not that I ever wrote anything interesting, but the shortness of the poem and the pairing of two very different images was pretty much the basis of my poetry as a kid. I thought randomness made poems deep.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The title of this poem is very important as it places the reader in the metro station. While titles of poems and books are always important, this poem would be quite lost without it's title. The title lets us know that "the apparition of these faces in the crowd" takes place in the metro station, not the stadium or the shopping mall or any other crowded place. By placing the reader with the title, the poem lets the reader know that the first image of the poem, the "faces in the crowd," is something that belongs to the location of the speaker.

Deviance And The Factors That Influence Deviant Conduct

â€Å"Deviance is a wide-ranging term used by sociologists to refer to behavior that varies, in some way, from a social norm† (C. Livesey). Based on this definition, we can clearly draw out that deviance would mean a behavior that comes in the form of rule-breaking.Deviance is the recognized violation of cultural norms (geocites. com). Deviance therefore encompasses breaking of rules that are maybe criminal, social, formal and informal rules that have already been established in a certain locality or in a given situation.Thus, deviance is determined and measured against established standards. Such standards are therefore the point of reference for the evaluation of conduct or behavior. When it conforms, then it necessarily means it is not deviant. Otherwise, such is considered deviant.For example, the used of alcoholic drinks is not generally prohibited by law and thus by the basis of law is not deviant. As a social norm, some societies, especially those that are strict to rel igious norms, drinking alcohol is undesirable and is deviant.As a social norm, wearing of improper attire in certain occasions is deviant but under the law, such behavior is not at all deviant because there no law or rule that governs such conduct. Therefore, we can say that deviance is dependent on the established norms and laws in a certain society. Deviance encompasses a wide range of other acts of nonconformity, from variations in hair styles to murder.TYPES OF DEVIANCESocietal Deviance includes those conduct or behaviors that do not conform to the categories or standards that are generally accepted by a certain society.For example, to exhibit dirty finger to your teacher is socially unacceptable, and thus is socially deviant. The judge of one’s conduct is therefore the people in general and they based their judgment on what are the established social norms that they used to live with. Situational Deviance, as compared to societal deviance is said to be more localized, th at is, determining whether an act in deviant or not depends on a single situation. For example, in cases of cops and soldiers on field or in a battle situation are faced with situational deviance.These people need, by demand of duty, to kill their enemies. Killing is by religious and criminal norms not allowed, and therefore deviant. Criminal Deviance is by simple definition a deviance from juridically established norms. When we say, juridical, it has something to do with laws and legality.Any act that deviates or does not conform to and violates established laws are criminally deviant. For example, to be impulsive is not criminally deviant but impulsiveness that lead to inflicting physical injury to others or that of murder is criminally deviant because it violates established laws.Psycho-pathological Deviance implies a shifting from normality (S. Di Nuovo). Abnormal modes of behavior are not crimes but require sanctions as compulsory psychiatric treatments. Antisocial personality disorder which includes inability to conform to legal or social rules, dishonest behavior, being impulsive and aggressive and irresponsibility are deviant conducts that are considered psycho-pathological. Note that these deviant behaviors do not necessarily criminally deviant but these deviant conducts may lead to criminal conduct such as being impulsive may lead to fighting then to murder.Primary Deviance relating to activity that is initially defined as deviant (Edwin Lamert) Secondary Deviance corresponds to a person who accepts the label of deviant. Secondary deviance according to Erving Goffman begins when a person acquires a stigma. Stigma, according to Goffman, is a powerfully negative label that radically changes a person's self-concept and social identity.FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE DEVIANT BEHAVIORS BIOLOGICAL FACTORSGenetics has found out that there is somehow a biological factor that influences an individual’s deviant behavior.The connection between a specific pattern of chromosomes has been shown to be related to deviant behavior; however, there are still not enough studies that will prove that this statement is true. But there are disorders in children that directly influence a deviant behavior.Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a very strong indicator for future conduct disorders. Vaxa. com has provided a medical definition of ADHD as a â€Å"family of related chronic neurobiological disorders that interfere with an individual's capacity to regulate activity level and contributes to impulsivity, inattention and distractibility.† It is specifically a dysfunction of the Central Nervous System (CNS), most specifically the Reticular Activating System, which results in difficulties of maintaining attention and concentration, learning and memory, as well as involving an inability to process and sort out incoming information or stimulus from both an individual's inner (subjective) and outer (objective) worlds.This disorder therefore r esults to the child’s misbehavior such as being hyperactive and impulsive, which are behaviors that are far different from how he is suppose to act and apart from what is considered to be normal, and thus considered deviant.Another disorder called Oppositional Defiant Disorder medically defined as â€Å"a pattern of negativistic (skepticism), uncooperative, defiant, disobedient, and hostile behavior toward authority figures that continues for a minimum of 6 months† (axa. com). Deviant behaviors exhibited by individuals with this disorder include willful disobedience, defying instructions and requests and arguing with adults.PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORSPsychological explanations of deviance concentrate on individual abnormalities involving personality. However, subsequent studies found flaws on the psychological correlation of deviant behavior.Geocites. com enumerated three basic reasons why psychological factors should be ignored. First, most serious crime is committed by peo ple who are psychologically normal. Second, cross-cultural differences in what is deemed normal and abnormal tend to be ignored. And third, the fact that people with similar psychological qualities are not equally as likely to be labeled deviant is not considered.SOCIAL FACTORSAs has been stated earlier, deviance does not necessarily be criminal deviance because there are established social norms that measure an individual’s behavior as deviant or non-deviant.It is therefore but fair to conclude that both conformity and deviance are defined by society. The degree of deviance is determined by the society according to socially accepted behaviors existing in a certain society. The society therefore somehow dictates how an individual should behave.For example, in a religious community, smoking and drinking alcohol are deviant acts as these directly opposed by, in example, the Christian religion. So an individual who mingles with the Christian community will try to behave in confo rmity with the existing norm.On the other hand, communities which view smoking and alcohol drinking as an indicator of social status, as with the elites, consider these behaviors as non-deviant, and thus are normal actions.CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AND CRIMINAL DEVIANCECivil disobedience is a form of protest in which protestors deliberately violate a law (P. Suber). Originally, the main purpose of civil disobedience is to appeal to the public about certain issues through protests or public demonstrations. On most occasions, issues that drives civil disobedience concerns political and moral issues.For example, laws that legalize euthanasia and death penalty have brought about many protests and public demonstrations. In such instances, participants usually violate traffic rules and trespassing.Their violations therefore are covered by civil laws. On the other hand, criminal deviance is covered by criminal laws. Murder and the use of prohibited drugs are criminal violations and therefore are criminal deviance. Although both deviance and violations are punishable, they are distinguished as to what laws cover such deviance.Deviant behaviors are measured and defined by established rules in a certain community, whether they be formal or informal rules. These behaviors are influenced by biological, psychological and social factors to certain degrees.Deviance does not necessarily violates legally or juridically established rules leading to the conclusion that criminal deviance is inherently behavioral deviance but not all deviant behaviors are criminal deviance. Civil disobedience and criminal deviance are distinguished by the laws that govern such violations.

What is Sampling in Archaeology

What is Sampling in Archaeology Sampling is the practical, ethical method of dealing with large amounts of data to be investigated. In archaeology, it is not always prudent or possible to excavate all of a particular site  or survey all of a particular area. Excavating a site is expensive and labor-intensive and it is a rare archaeological budget that allows that. Secondly, under most circumstances, it is considered ethical to leave a portion of a site or deposit unexcavated, assuming that improved research techniques will be invented in the future. In those cases, the archaeologist must design an excavation or survey sampling strategy that will obtain enough information to allow reasonable interpretations of a site or area, while avoiding complete excavation. Scientific sampling needs to carefully consider how to obtain a thorough, objective sample that will represent the entire site or area. To do that, you need your sample to be both representative and random. Representative sampling requires that you first assemble a description of all the pieces of the puzzle that you expect to examine, and then select a subset of each of those pieces to study. For example, if you plan to survey a particular valley, you might first plot out all the kinds of physical locations that occur in the valley (floodplain, upland, terrace, etc.) and then plan to survey the same acreage in each location type, or the same percentage of area in each location type. Random sampling is also an important component: you need to understand all parts of a site or deposit, not just the ones where you might find the most intact or the most artifact-rich areas. Archaeologists often use a random number generator to select areas to study without bias. Sources See the Sampling in Archaeology Bibliography.