Friday, February 14, 2020

Rebekah Nathan's My Freshman Year Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Rebekah Nathan's My Freshman Year - Essay Example Thus leaves the profoundest question that the book infers: 'Is it plausible for teachers and professors to influence the dominant student culture' The question then becomes, 'why would the professors of today want to influence student behavior and thinking' From Rebekah Nathan's research which steers clear of criticism, I see clearly three main reasons for wanting to affect change in the minds of students: one is the ignorance of world affairs and peoples; the other is the materialism that marks modern American priorities; and the third being the apparent lack of discipline and integrity in the more honorable precepts of what a higher school of learning is for in the first place. Some of the more profound research that Rebekah Nathan conducted was her interviews with minority students in revealing the lack of knowledge American students have of worldliness and in relating with other people outside of the dominant culture. Comments made by American freshman students such as, "Is Japan in China" or "Is it North Korea of South Korea that has a dictator" and even, "Where exactly is India" amazed international students (Nathan 84). In regards to friendships with people from other races, minorities were not so easily befriended by American students. A student from France noted, "Friendship is very surface-defined here. It is easy to get to know people, but the friendship is superficial. We wouldn't even call it a friendship. In France, when you're someone's friend, you're their friend for life" (Nathan 75). Many other examples from students around the world felt this way too. One student was befuddled that nobody ever even asked him about the country in which he c ame from. I believe that American students need to improve in their interest, acceptance, and knowledge of people from around the world and to understand that America is not the center of the world. Another deterrent from students developing more substantial relationships appears to be because of technology and America's strong views of independence and freedom. For example, many students communicate by computer, even when they are in close proximity to each other; television and computer gaming is a typical activity shared that does not provide much opportunity for interaction; and, because everyone wants to be independent and free, students are finding it harder to commit to group related activities and causes. Rebekah Nathan portrays college to be both a rite of passage but essentially a jumping off place for acquiring a future job. In Rebekah Nathan's surveys and questioners it was only a select few individuals who stated their purpose for going to a university was to learn. The main reasons involved: future jobs, relationships, social interaction and fun. This leads us to the question Rebekah Nathan asks in so many indirect ways, 'Why are students coming to universities in the first place' More students are attending college then ever before; a privilege once reserved for the elite is now made possible to all. More modern-day students need to work while in school in order to pay for college. Student's time is limited and the debts wait at the end of college life with the hopes of landing the perfect job to pay off those debts. The reason for attending a university I understood from Rebekah Nathan's notes

Saturday, February 1, 2020

Article summary Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Summary - Article Example Researchers are working on those questions and hypotheses because there are only few studies that have demonstrated broad transfer from training to performance on untrained cognitive abilities, training paradigms lacked pedagogical foundation and was difficult to apply in non-laboratory setting or long-term behavioral change, link between music and language is unspecified, and lack of sufficient testing to support the evidences (Moreno, et al., 1-2). In testing the hypotheses, various techniques were used such as: using short, intense series of training sessions measuring intelligence with two subtests from the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence–Third Edition; measuring executive function using a go/no-go task that records behavioral performance and event-related potentials (ERPs); and review of previous studies showing increase in amplitude of P2 after music training (Moreno, et al., 2). Children aged 4-6 years old were test in the study. There are 71 childr en recruited but due to drop-out reasons, WPPSI-III data were available for 64 children, 32 (18 girls and 14 boys) who received visual-art training and 32 (20 girls and 12 boys) who received music training (Moreno, et al., 2). In addition, 16 participants were not included in the study because of uneasiness with the procedure and noise in the ERP signal. Therefore, the final sample size is 48 participants, with 24 participants in each training group. Moreno et al. found out that: there was no difference on visual-art training and music training on intelligence measures in the pretest session; significant improvement in intelligence scores marked by improvement only on verbal test were noted only on the music group after training; from pretest to posttest, more than 90% of the children in the music program improved their verbal score; music group outperformed the visual-art group at posttest; group performance has not been mainly affected but revealed significant effect of session on ly in the music group; N2/P3 complex groups have no significant differences but P2 component showed significant differences between groups; after training, the music group showed significantly larger peak amplitudes in the no-go trials whereas the visual-art group did not; and researchers found a significant positive correlation among music group only (4-5). Implications of the study are relevant to the education sector as evidence showed that WPPSI Verbal IQ is highly predictive of academic achievement plan and that there is a strong relationship between IQ evaluated at age 5 and in later life. In addition, computerized tutorials would make it easier for educational environments to implement training (Moreno, et al., 7). The study of Moreno et al. addressed neuroeducation and neurorehabilitation using computerized technologies. Context The findings of the study interest me because of the significant