Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Sociology Investigation Essay Example for Free

Sociology Investigation Essay With the use of covert participant observation and study of secondary data, I will be analyzing and investigation the question â€Å"Why do girls do better at school than boys? † I will come to a conclusion on whether this question is correct and if it is true or not, then explaining the reasons why they do better or why they do not. Hypothesis – We believe that girls do better in school and this is because most girls can multi task and think about their future much more than boys who are trying to â€Å"live in the moment†. Boys are also socialized into being violent and being slightly rebellious so will not concentrate enough in lessons. Girls are however socialized to be respectable and get a good job to help the family and also to be sensible so they can raise children. Finally I feel girls generally can be distracted one day for many reasons but keep quiet and everyone knows not to annoy them, but on the other hand boys if they get distracted tend to disturb everyone around them. Why do girls do better than Investigation Discussion of Secondary Data – In some research it highlights how boys by the age of eight are meant to have adopted these boys by the age of eight are meant to have adopted these perceptions and that from that age the perceptions and that from that age the gap between intelligence is visible. They saw that boys could become products of self-fulfilling prophecy. The research also shows that boys lag behind girls in nearly all subjects at A-level and GCSE. Girls from reception to year 5 said that girls were cleverer, performed better and more focused and respectful. Boys in reception, yr1 and yr2 had an equal split between boys and girls and in yr3 they all said girls were better showing as they get older the gap is bigger and more visible to see. Adults that also believe girls do better the research showed. In a separate investigation two groups we held both full of boys, the first was told that girls performed better than girls and the second were not. The first group performed significantly worse than the second. This could show how their poor performance could be because of low expectations of teachers. Stats – 25. 5% of entries by girls were A/A* compared with 19. 5% for boys. The gap narrows at A-level, with 27. 6% of entries which are girls were awarded A/A* compared with 26. 1%. Method – I am going to use covert participant observation to investigate my hypothesis. This will involve watching a lesson and recording notes on how behavior and attention differ between boys and girls. I will make sure that no one knows I’m doing this so they don’t change their behavior to make them look better or alter what they would do because they know they are being watched. It important to control these to make accurate results are noted down. I will then record my results in a need and structure paragraph using qualitative analysis. I am also going to do a survey asking an equal amount of boys and girls from a range of years asking if they think boys or girls do better in school. This will be good to do as a comparison could be made between my results and secondary data. The pros of this method are that we can easily compare secondary data and also with the survey being quantitative we can make a graph and with the qualitative data we can make a clear and detailed conclusion. The cons are when asking the survey it may be hard to get real opinions as boys may say boys do better in school because of their â€Å"honor† but really they believe girls do better. Ethical issues – Some issues I might face with this investigation is the use of covert participant observation because some people may feel they are being involved with something they don’t want to be involved with and that we are going behind their back as we have not asked them to be involved. They may not feel comfortable with being involved and we have to think about and respect that. Finally if we are watching teacher they may not feel that it appropriate for us to watch them and make notes as they are our elders and they may believe we are judging them. Pilot Study – I made my first pilot study in the first lesson of planning. Something I noticed were that the group behind us of all girls was planning and mind mapping ideas about how they could go about their investigation and started writing the norms. However the group of boys at the back we getting distracted said they would do it after the holiday and were clearly bored so tried to practice the covert participant observation method but were laughing and not doing it properly by as they were laughing and we knew they were watching us In turn automatically changing our behavior towards them. Evaluation of pilot study – From the pilot study we see that our hypothesis was correct and girls are more focused which maybe a reason why they have been shown to do better in school than boys. The study also highlighted how if you are caught using covert participant observation then people will change their behavior distracting them as well from their work also confirming my ideas about how boys distract everyone around them when they are bored. Presentation of results – Notes: * Girls seemed to settle in a lot quicker than boys. * More boys got more penalties than girls * Boys asking for pens and equipment Couples of boys and girls work better than two boys sitting together * Boys seen to distract a lot of people around then and the whole class are disturbed and the teacher had to stop * Boys are always the once making funny comments and trying to be the jokers * Some boys got a bad result in the end of term test they seem to just be fine with it and even use it as something to laugh about, also some girls do that and on one hand they may have struggled and then they get help but on the other they do sometimes use it as an excuse maybe just because they didn’t revise or concentrate in lessons Conclusion and discussion of results – My results strongly collaborate my hypothesis as they indicate that boys’ behavior is a lot worse than those of girls and this I feel is directly related to the lower grades on average that girls get. My results also show how boys have been socialized into being the class clowns and that to be popular they have to make rude or annoying comments that people laugh at. This highlights the idea about some boys just thinking about the current time and not there future, whereas on the other hand girls are thinking about their future. On the whole my results did collaborate with my hypothesis and from the results I got I feel girls are more focused and doing this investigation opened my eyes up to this fact and how boys do seem to be a lot less bothered and this in turn affects their school in terms of grades and results they receive at the end of their schooling lives. Evaluation of method – I used covert participant observation to gather qualitative information, this gave me detailed results that a structured conclusion would be made from. There were no problems with the use of the covert participant observation method and at the end I also spoke to some people and told them they had been filmed, they seemed fine about it but I was weary that some people may have not liked being watched and that is understandable so I was careful. The use of the survey allowed me to compare data that was gathered in research and the results we found out. Although next time I feel I could have asked a wider range of people and also a wider range of ages because students can often lie to make their sex or the opposite sex seem better and have biases because of one reason or another.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Earthquakes Essay example -- essays research papers

I chose to research earthquakes and the prediction of earthquakes because I was curious as to how they work. In this paper, I will discus the history of earthquakes, the kinds and locations of earthquakes, earthquake effects, intensity scales, prediction, and my own predictions. An earthquake can be defined as vibrations produced in the earth's crust. Tectonic plates have friction between them which builds up as it tries to push away and suddenly ruptures and then rebounds. The vibrations can range from barely noticeable to a disastrous, and destructive act of nature. Six kinds of shock waves are generated in the process. Two are classified as body waves, that is, they travel through the inside of the earth and the other four are surface waves. The waves are further classified by the kinds of motions they incur to rock particles. Primary or compressional waves, known as P waves, send particles moving back and forth in the same direction as the waves are traveling, as secondary or transverse shear waves, known as S waves, create vibrations perpendicular to their direction of travel. P waves always travel at faster speeds than S waves, so whenever an earthquake occurs, P waves are the first to arrive and to be recorded at geophysical research stations worldwide. During ancient times very little was know about. Some of the ancient Greek philosophers connected earthquakes to underground winds, where others blamed them on fires in the depths of the earth. Around AD 130 the Chinese scholar Chang Heng, believing that waves must ripple through the earth from the source of an earthquake, created a bronze object to record the directions of such waves. Eight balls were carefully balanced in the mouths of eight dragons placed around the outside of the object. When a passing earthquake occurred the wave would cause one or more of the balls to drop. Earthquake waves were observed in this and other ways for centuries, but more scientific theories as to the causes of quakes were not proposed until modern times. One such concept was recreated and advanced in 1859 by an Irish engineer, Robert Mallet. Perhaps recalling on his knowledge of the strength and behavior of construction materials, Robert Mallet proposed that earthquakes occurred "either by sudden flexure and constraint of the elastic materials forming a portion of the earth's crust or by their giving way an... ...orth of the earthquake that occurred the day before, this time I was wrong, there were two that occurred near the San Francisco bay area and none within a 50 mile radius of my approximation. The next couple days I predicted earthquakes that were within a 100 mile radius than were they actually occurred. From my experiments I concluded that predicting earthquakes was easy, you just have to pick a spot on the fault. The only thing that troubled me and probably most scientists, is magnitude, there is no possible way of predicting an earthquakes magnitude. Which is what we are really trying to predict. Earthquakes happen all the time, but what we are really trying to figure out how to predict is when a major earthquake is going to occur. I learned that earthquakes are almost unpredictable, and devastating acts of nature. I also learned how earthquakes occur and almost all of the "earthquake dictionary". There is still alot more to be known about earthquakes that we still do not know about today. Prediction of large earthquakes is still under development, where prediction of small, unnoticeable earthquakes can be easy to predict because they happen mainly around fault lines.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

The Big Daddy of Social Learning

JB Garcia California Polytechnic State University Associated with Albert Bandura's work in the 1960s, social learning theory explains how people learn new behaviors, values, and attitudes. While mostly related to early development in children, social learning theory occurs at times when most people don't even realize that it is happening. There are many examples that could have been chosen to show the social learning theory but I believe there are none best than the movie Big Daddy. The premise of the movie is based on this young boy Julian McGrath (Dylan and Cole Sprouse) who is left in the care of his father after his mother passes away. When his father, Kevin Gerrity (John Stewart), could not take care of him because he is out of the country, Sonny Koufax (Adam Sandler) decides to raise the boy on his own. By dissecting key scenes in Big Daddy, it is easy to tell that this movie is a perfect example of social learning theory because of the many scenes that show Sonny trying to teach Julian who to live in both a non-traditional method and a firm parenting method with easily identifiable cognitive responses from Julian. What is the Social Learning Theory?Before beginning to dissect scenes from the movie it is important to establish a clear understanding of the social learning theory. The social learning theory  is a theory of  learning  and  social behavior, which states that new behaviors can be acquired by observing and imitating others. A popular example would be young children mimicking their older siblings around the house and striving to be exactly like that older sibling. The key tenets of social learning theory are that learning is not purely behavioral but is actually a cognitive process that takes places in a social setting. This means that by simply observing their current situation and surroundings someone is able to pickup on things and is able understand based on what they are seeing. Social learning also requires attention to the object or person being observed, remembering or retention the observed behavior, the ability to replicate the behavior, and a motivation to act the same way. For example, that same child might see a sibling receive a reward for good behavior in a public setting and imitate the sibling in the hope of getting a reward, too. Modeling is also a key part of the social learning theory because it allows learning to occur without any noticeable change in behavior. Being able to extract information from observations and make decisions based on the performance of the behavior such as a child seeing a sibling behave poorly and get away with it and try to replicate that behavior thinking that they will not get in trouble either. It is important to the person observing the behaviors is not a passive recipient of the information and that other factors can all influences the observer such as cognition, environment and reinforced behavior. Four Phases of Social LearningOne of the major focus for the social learning theory and arguably the entire basis relies on the premise that the observer is able to pay attention for a short amount of time and has enough awareness of their surrounding to understand what is happening. How the observer perceives and understands the events in their surroundings is directly effected by their perceptual abilities, cognitive abilities and the characteristics of the events themselves. In this way, social factors contribute to attention and the prestige of different models affects the relevance and functional value of observation and therefore affects attention. In order to reproduce an observed behavior, observers must be able to remember features of the behavior. Again, this process is influenced by observer characteristics (cognitive capabilities, cognitive rehearsal) and event characteristics. Bandura describes that the visual and verbal aspects of cognitive learning as the most important parts in terms of the retention process. The reproduction aspect of the social learning theory is the most difficult because the observer needs to have the ability and cognitive skill to perform the actions that they are seeing. In some cases in which behaviors are modeled after self-observation, an observer requires some form of effective feedback in order to enhance their cognitive abilities and improve their performance based on their models. All of these aspects lead up to the decision of the observer to replicate the observed behavior. The motivation to reproduce a behavior or action is dependent on the observers understanding of the expectations and understanding of the consequences that come with replicating the action. Environment and other social factors can also consequently affect the decision to reproduce behaviors. These are the four phases of the social learning theory that must occur for it to be effective. Limitations of the Social Learning Theory With a heavy emphasis on how the observers environment affects them and directs their learning, this theory is weak when it comes to the observer's own actions. Putting the focus on how setting influences behavior places more weight on the people and community that the observer is part of, and not enough weight on how the observer handles and processes new information. It neglects the observer's accountability and may go too far in stating that society directs how the individual behaves and acts. Unlike stage models of the observer's development, social learning theory doesn't hinge upon a distinct progression of learning and growth that is chronological or age dependent. The view of this theory as neglecting to consider the observer's development, across all of the domains, is a potential weakness. Although not every observer's matures at an identical rate, some of the standard milestones and markers may still occur regardless of the environmental setting.Breaking Down Big DaddyBig Daddy is a story of a young boy, Julian, and a man, Sonny Koufax, who has taken on the role of being the Julian's father. Julian is only five years old as if a very reserved child. That coupled with the fact that Sonny doesn't want to be the one in charge of him leads to Sonny giving Julian complete freedom as a part of his parental approach. In the scenes we see in the video, Sonny drops a stick on a path so that when people in rollerblades are coming down the path they will hit the stick and fall. Once Julian sees this he immediately finds the action to be funny and repeats this action with a group of people rollerblading through cones causing someone to fall and triggering positive reinforcement from Sonny. It's clear that Julian able to pay attention and replicate the action of putting the stick down because he chooses to do this on his own in separate scene. Julian's motivation to replicate this action derived from the sense of enjoyment and happiness he experienced the first time he saw it with Sonny. His actions are then reinforced when Sonny applauds and says, â€Å"That's my boy!† (Big Daddy 1999).In another scene we see in the clip is when Julian is struggling to use the bathroom and Sonny encourages him to pee in public on the door. Although afraid at first, Julian observes Sonny pee on the door and believes that this is socially acceptable. We see later in the film that Julian has been replicating and actively replicates this behavior as he begins to pee into a plant in his classroom while Sonny is speaking to his teacher about his poor hygiene and scholastic shortcomings. If it weren't for Sonny showing him to pee on the door earlier in the movie Julian most likely wouldn't have reproduced this behavior. There are some positive displays of the social learning theory in this clip as well. Julian is struggling to tie his shoes for a little and Sonny takes initiative and shows Julian how to tie his shoes properly using the â€Å"Loop and Swoop† method. The evidence that Julian was paying attention and was able to reproduce this behavior comes later in the film when Sonny is speaking to the social worker and Julian ecstatically runs up to Sonny saying, â€Å"Look I did it! Loop, swoop and pull!† (Big Daddy 1999). This shows the cognitive ability of Julian in that even though he was only shown how to tie his shoes once early in the film that even down the road he was able to replicate it and do it on his own. The Big PictureThe social learning theory is important because it should make people more aware of how their actions can influence the people around them. People tend to forget how easy it is for children to pick up on things that see or hear which are main aspects of the film Big Daddy; so using the knowledge of the social learning theory should enable parents to become more aware of what they are doing around their young children. Big Daddy is a perfect example of what children are capable of learning in the short amount of time and minimum exposure to certain behaviors. As children they may not be fully aware of every single repercussion that comes from their actions but only that the action can lead to a smile or a laugh or even a tear. Social learning theory should be used as a teaching point for young parents and even older sibling to provide their youth with proper examples of how society functions and help them make their own decisions about what is right and what is wrong. Reference SheetBandura, Albert (1963).  Social learning and personality development. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.Bandura, Albert (1971).  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Social Learning Theory†Ã‚  (PDF).General Learning Corporation. Retrieved  25 December  2013.Big Daddy (1999). (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2018, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142342/Latimer, S. (Director). (2015, January 15).Social Learning Big Daddy[Video file]. Retrieved February 4, 2018, from HYPERLINK â€Å"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhe6p3Xkzt0† https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhe6p3Xkzt0Loop, E. (n.d.).Social Learning Theory Strengths & Weaknesses. Retrieved February 09, 2018, from http://classroom.synonym.com/social-learning-theory-strengths-weaknesses-6592126.html

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Mark Twain Quotes on Education and Schooling

The genius writer and father of American literature,  Mark Twain, was not educated beyond elementary school. His expresses cynicism toward the mediocre education system of this time in his quotes about education. He believed that schooling was different from education and learning. He warns us of the hazards of following the education system with blind faith. In Praise of Learning and Training Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. The man who does not read books has no advantage over the man that can not read them. There is nothing training cannot do. Nothing is above its reach. It can turn bad morals to good; it can destroy bad principles and recreate good ones; it can lift men to angel ship. Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. Its like feeding a dog on his own tail. It wont fatten the dog. It is noble to teach oneself, but still nobler to teach others - and less trouble. A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way. Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered - either by themselves or by others. Learning softeneth the heart and breedeth gentleness and charity. Criticism of Schooling Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned. We have not the reverent feeling for the rainbow that a savage has because we know how it is made. We have lost as much as we gained by prying into that matter. God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board. Just the omission of Jane Austens books alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadnt a book in it. I never let my schooling interfere with my education. Everything has its limit - iron ore cannot be educated into gold. All schools, all colleges, have two great functions: to confer, and to conceal valuable knowledge. Mark Twain Quips on Specific Subjects The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice. I dont give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way. There are lies, damned lies, and statistics. Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable. Classic. A book which people praise and dont read. I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didnt know. Why shouldnt truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense. We could use up two Eternities in learning all that is to be learned about our own world and the thousands of nations that have arisen and flourished and vanished from it. Mathematics alone would occupy me eight million years. Many public-school children seem to know only two dates - 1492 and 4th of July, and as a rule, they dont know what happened on either occasion.