Mother Tongue-Based Multi-Lingual Education in Philippine Schools Essay Example for Free

Mother Tongue-Based Multi-Lingual Education in Philippine Schools Essay Scenario: A Waray-speaking couple from Samar decided to relocate in Cebu for job opportunities. Tagging along with them is their first-grader girl. Deficient of finances, they decided to enroll the kid in a public school. It so happened that the Philippine Department of Education (DepEd) has introduced the Mother Tongue-Based Multi-Lingual Education (MTB-MLE) program. This is a program that uses your mother tongue (language at home) as a medium of instruction inside the classroom. Will the girl be given special attention knowing that she speaks Waray and be separated from the rest of her Cebuano-speaking classmates? If the language at home will be the medium of instruction from Kinder to Grade 3, how will this affect a multi-language group? According to DepEd, 12 major Philippine languages will be introduced beginning this school year 2012-2013 to improve literacy and instruction: Tagalog, Kapampangan, Pangasinense, Iloko, Bikol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Tausug, Maguindanaoan, Maranao, and Chabacano. The objectives of the program include: l. anguage development which establishes a strong education for success in school and for lifelong learning; 2. cognitive development which focuses on Higher Order Thinking Skills competencies in each of the learning areas; and 3. academic development which prepares the learner to acquire mastery of language and culture. 4. socio-cultural awareness which enhances the pride of the learner’s heritage. The program hopes that by using the mother tongue (first language or L1) as a medium of instruction inside the classroom in the early grades, it will hasten the basic communication skills of the students. When students develop fluency in speaking, reading and writing in the first language, the L1 can then be utilized as a bridge or transitional to learning the second (L2) and third (L3) languages (e. g. Filipino and English). The introduction of languages in this method will give students confidence in learning academic concepts. From DepEd Order No. 74, 3c: â€Å"In terms of cognitive development, and its effects in other academic areas, pupils taught to read and write in their first language acquire [educational] competencies more quickly. † Director Yolanda Quijano of DepEd’s Bureau of Elementary Education stressed in a press release, â€Å"[These] studies proved that learners who begin in their first language have more efficient cognitive development and are better prepared for more cognitively demanding subject matter. In other words, a learner tends to be smarter if he starts his education using the mother tongue. † How will DepEd implement the program? Below, I tabulated a progression plan for teaching and using the three languages (mother-tongue, English, Filipino) based on how I understood the program. Basically, the program starts with pupils learning their lessons through the use of their mother-tongue — first orally and then in written form. It finishes with kids being fluent in (or at least learning fast) English and Filipino when they finish grade 6. Will this kind of plan succeed? I believe so, if planned properly. Even UNESCO endorses the use of Mother Tongue Multilingual Education and highlights the important features of the process: 1.  Education begins with what the learners already know, building on the language and culture, knowledge and experience that they bring with them when they start school; 2. Learners gradually gain confidence in using the new (official) language, before it becomes the only language for teaching academic subjects; and 3. Learners achieve grade level competence in each subject because teachers use their home language, along with the official school language, to help them understand the academic concepts. Also, MTB-MLE has long been used by other developing countries. Here are benchmark studies from UNESCO: 1. Modiano’s (1973) study in the Chiapas highlands of Mexico found that indigenous children efficiently transferred literacy skills from the L1 to the L2 and out-performed monolingual Spanish speakers. 2. The Six-Year Yoruba Medium Primary Project (Fafunwa et al. 1975; Akinnaso 1993; see Adegbiya 2003 for other references) demonstrated unequivocally that a full six-year primary education in the mother tongue with the L2 taught as a subject was not only viable but gave better results than all-English schooling. It also suggested that teachers should be allowed to specialize in L2 instruction. 3. The Rivers Readers Project, also in Nigeria, showed how mother tongue materials of reasonable quality could be developed even where resources were scarce and even for previously undeveloped languages with small numbers of speakers (Williamson, 1976). Communities themselves provided competent native speakers and funds for language development, producing over forty publications in fifteen languages. 4.  Large-scale research on Filipino-English bilingual schooling in the Philippines (Gonzalez Sibayan, 1988) found a positive relationship between achievement in the two languages, and found that low student performance overall was not an effect of bilingual education but of other factors, especially the low quality of teacher training (see also Dutcher 1995). If the program works in other developing countries, I believe, it should also work in the Philippines. But this isn’t easy. Getting to the goal takes a lot of groundwork. Look at the figure below. For the program to achieve long-term success, DepEd must go through each and every step. It looks like DepEd has already done the necessary research and already raised awareness about the program through its Region, Division, District, and School Heads, as well as through Local Government Units (LGUs). But what about the rest of the steps? Do we have enough teaching and learning materials ready that are built specifically for a particular language? Next, have we trained enough teachers and staff to efficiently implement the program? Most importantly, do we have the funding and full support from the government to sustain this effort? Now, let me go back to the challenge I mentioned in the first paragraph. How will the program resolve classrooms with multiple home languages spoken by pupils? What is the solution when teachers that are available to teach do not even speak the pupils’ mother-tongue? Should we place books and reading materials written in different home languages in each classroom? While I support mother tongue-based education, I think DepEd must spend some more time to resolve some lingering questions and prepare the materials needed to facilitate effective classroom interaction with this new approach to basic education. Success stories in Papua New Guinea (Klaus 2003), and the Rivers Readers project in Nigeria (Williamson 1985) should become inspirations for the Philippines. More time is also needed for human resource development. To remedy this situation, the case of the bilingual intercultural education in Bolivia must be looked into (refer to ETARE 1993, Albo Anaya 2003). Are you one with the DepEd in the implementation of the Mother Tongue-Based Multi-Lingual Education (MTB-MLE) program this coming school year? Leave some comments below.

Essay --

1) Identify synthesis methods that are used to make the nanomaterials for your application (1 separate synthesis method per team member). Briefly describe how each synthesis method works, and classify each as top-down or bottom-up. For drug delivery, numerous processes exist that incorporate nanotechnology. A very common procedure for promoting drug delivery, is through the use of nanoparticles. This allows for a controlled drug release. By using nanoparticle technology, drugs can be placed inside a vehicle which helps decrease the rate at which said drug will metabolize. Targeted drug delivery is also possible, due to specific nanoparticles releasing the drug once it reaches its destination. This reduces total drugs needed as well as the side effects, due to a more efficient transporting mechanism. Lowering the costs is another benefit as well. Anything smaller than 100 nm is considered a nanoparticle. Four common nanoparticles used are silica (SiO2), gold (Au), magnetite (Fe3O4), and quantum dots. Silica nanoparticles are very inert so they can be used with very reactive drugs. Due to the nature of the shape, size, and arrangement of these nanoparticles, they can bypass the RES (reticuloendothelial system). The drugs will then not be recognized as foreign and can thus be delivered to their target with minimal issue. Silica nanoparticles can also be mesoporous, which has pore sizes of 2-50 nm.2They can have a unique arrangement with a core shell architecture which allows a nanoparticle to have two different properties due to the different materials. Due to these pores, drug loading ability can be customized. Another trendy nanoparticle is gold. They are used due to their special photo thermal effect; one can send in light a... ...um. Nanosphere lithography is the second best because it is used when polymers cannot be accessed. Metals are made as spheres but shapes are limited by the crystal group chosen as the glass substrate material. Sol-gel has tons of potential but it can only make hydrophobic materials. Microfluidization is easily the worst because it is way too expensive for such low yield. Research is being done to optimize this. All of these drug delivery synthesis methods can be performed fairly quickly and are currently being used commercially, with various levels of popularity. Radical polymerization also has the largest range of crystal properties possibilities, being able to be hydrophilic or hydrophobic. This is very unique, especially when considering it being used as a drug vehicle. Being hydrophilic can allow hydrophobic drugs to enter the body for extended amounts of time.

The Neighbourhood Principle

Has The Neighbourhood Principle failed? â€Å"My neighbour asked me if he could use my lawnmower and I told him of course he could, so long as he didn’t take it out of my garden. †1 This is the concept which most people tend to associate the word ‘neighbour’ with. However, in the court room, the word makes a decisive shift away from this traditional meaning and endeavours to establish to whom a common law duty of care is owed. The law has expanded considerably by the onset of the concept of foreseeable plaintiffs which is almost 80 years in existence in the UK.It is evasive in determining â€Å"whether proximity should now be regarded as a discrete analytical concept around which arguments may be constructed, or merely as a slippery expression reflective of the fairness, justice and reasonableness of imposing a duty of care upon the defendant in the light of the nature of his relationship with the claimant. † 2 This essay sets out to establish whethe r the neighbour principle was successful or if it has fallen short and where, it will present court decisions, statutes and constitutional provisions pertinent to this area of law.In articulating what was meant by â€Å"the neighbour principle†, Lord Atkin famously stated the following proposition: â€Å"The rule that you must love your neighbour becomes in law you must not injure your neighbour; and lawyer’s question, ‘who is my neighbour? ’ receives a restricted reply. You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions 1 2 Eric Morecombe (English comedian, 1926-84) Hartstone, J. , ‘Confusion, contradiction and chaos within the House of Lords post Caparo v. Dickman’, (2008) 16 Tort L Rev 8 which you can reasonably foresee would be liable to injure your neighbour?The answer seems to be – persons who are so closely and directly affected by my act that I ought reasonably to have them in contemplation as being so affected when I am directing my mind to the acts or omissions which are called in question. †3 His definition was to become the foundation stone of later cases involving negligence and was, in due course, accepted as â€Å"the first definitive test of when a duty of care was owed. †4 Atkin’s statement has given rise to much discussion. At first, some displayed uneasiness at the very wide and flexible terms in which it was propounded 56.It is important to remark that this neighbour principle formed part of the ratio decidendi of Atkin’s judgment but that it cannot be said that it is the ratio decidendi of his decision. â€Å"For although both Lord Thankerton and Lord Macmillan contemplated the addition of new duties to the law of negligence, neither of them attempted to formulate the principle or principles upon which this might be done. Nor is the generalising approach of the neighbour principle appropriate to the criminal law, where precision and certainty are all-importan t. †7 As a consequence of the Donaghue v.Stevenson [1932] case in the UK, the people were given a potential remedy to take against the providers of consumer products even where no privity contract had been in existence between the 3 4 Ibid at 580 Connolly, U. , Tort Law, (Second Audition, Thomson Reuters (Professional) Ireland Limited, Dublin, 2009) at 16 5 Smith v. Howden’s Ltd [1953] N. I. 137 per Lord MacDermott C. J. 6 London Graving Dock Co. Ltd. v. Horton [1951] A. C. 736 7 Heuston, R. F. V. , ‘Salmond on the Law of Torts’, 17th edition, (Sweet & Maxwell, London, 1977) at 198 complainant and the individual or company tortfeasors.If the proviso for ascertaining that a duty of care was met, then such individuals could bring negligence claims in any situation. The dictum was accepted into Irish law in Kirby v. Burke [1944]. 8 The decision in this case â€Å"stands on the boundaries of actionable negligence,†9 and does not contend nor purport to gi ve guidance on the obligations arising from already distinguished duties, or in fact, recognisable relationships – e. g. that of occupier and visitor. 10 Sometimes the particular duty can subsist contemporaneously with the Atkinian duty,11 but sometimes it displaces it. 2 Duties may be divided into those owed to someone else i. e. â€Å"if it was imposed for the benefit of that someone else;†13 and duties owed to no one in particular i. e. if it was not imposed for the benefit of a particular individual but was imposed for the benefit of the community as a whole or for the benefit of some section of the community. †14 In an ever conscious society, there was much need for the modernisation of the law with regard to the wider duties and especially the neighbourhood principle. The Anns v.Merton15 case brought about the ‘two-stage test’ in order to ascertain 8 9 Kirby v. Burke [1944] I. R. 207 Smith v. Howdens Ltd. [1953] N. I. 131, 137, per Lord MacDerm ott C. J. 10 Smith v. Scott [1973] Ch. 314 11 Commissioners for Railways v. McDermott [1967] A. C. 1054 12 Commissioners for Railways v. Quinlan [1964] A. C. 1054 13 Bagshaw, R. and McBride, N. , ‘Tort Law’, (Pearson Education Limited, Essex, 2001) at 3 14 Ibid at 3 15 Anns. v. Merton London Borough Council [1978] A. C. 728 the existence of a duty of care in negligence.Lord Wilberforce initiated the requirement of: I. II. â€Å"A sufficient relationship of proximity based upon foreseeability†16 And secondly, the deliverance of reasons as to why a duty of care should not exist. In 1990, concerns arose with regard to the duty of care. 17 â€Å"Lord Bridge and Oliver in Caparo sought to remove any temptation on the part of the practitioners to view proximity as a discrete legal concept capable of precise application to the resolution of legal disputes. Instead, encouragement was given to view proximity in descriptive terms rather than as a definitive concept. 18 Th is time a three-stage test was introduced to establish a duty of care I. II. III. Foreseeability of damage was required, A relationship characterised by neighbourhood19 And that it would be fair, just and reasonable to impose a duty which would benefit the other party. â€Å"The Caparo tripartite approach made no reference to the concept of policy. Instead, Lord Bridge spoke only in terms of a duty of care being imposed where the 16 17 18 Ibid at 741 Caparo Industries Plc v. Dickman [1990] 2 A. C. 605 Op cit 2 as per judgment of Lord Atkin ‘Caparo v.Dickman’ (2008) 16 Tort L Rev ‘Caparo v. Dickman’ (2008) 16 Tort L Rev 8Lawbook Co. at 13 8Lawbook Co. at 13 19 court considered that it would be fair, just and reasonable to do so. †20 It is also interesting to note that a two-part test is now in place in certain jurisdictions, e. g. New Zealand, for novel fact circumstances where the finding of a duty now has to be balanced against applicable policy mat ters. 21 The two-step test established in Donaghue22 and later developed in Anns23 was that accepted by the Irish courts until 2002 until the decision of Glencar Exploration Plc v.Mayo County Council [2002]. 24 This case marked the adaptation of a two-step test which gave precedence to the â€Å"incrementalist approach†25 that was being applied in the English courts at the time. Implications of the decision in this case made by the Supreme Court became blatant in the case of Fletcher v. Commissioners of Public Works. 26 â€Å"A plaintiff who suffered reasonably foreseeable psychiatric injury, which had resulted from the defendant’s negligence towards him as his employer, was denied the damages awarded to him by the Supreme Court on ‘policy’ grounds. 27 This new approach is much more sympathetic. Since 2005, proximity has once again come to the fore with regards to decisions made by the House, some of their Lordships have adopted it as a â€Å"central ana lytical tool for disposing of appeals. †28 Thus, the notion that this principle of 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Ibid at 13 Scott Group Ltd. v. McFarlane [1978] 1 N. Z. L. R. 553 Op cit. 4 Op Cit 19 Glencar Exploration Plc v. Mayo County Council [2002] 1 I. R. 84 Class notes on Negligence authored by Connolly, U. , distributed by Hackett. C. Fletcher v.Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland [2003] 2 I. R. 465 Byrne & Binchy, Annual Review of Tort Law, (2003) at 526 Op cit 26 at 13 proximity could â€Å"have been elevated to the dignity of being a concept in its own right†29 originated. It is subsequently unclear now as to whether it should be regarded as â€Å"a discrete analytical concept around which arguments may be constructed, or merely as a slippery expression reflective of the fairness, justice and reasonableness of imposing a duty of care upon the defendant in the light of the nature of his relationship with the claimant. 30 To bring to a close, the term ‘ neighbour’ and proximity clearly have a much wider interpretation – physical proximity, causal proximity or indeed the denotation of a legal relationship. Furthermore, if this test is satisfied, it is then up to the court to decide whether any policy reasons (or otherwise) exist so as not to acknowledge a duty of care in that particular case. The elusiveness of how this dictum is interpreted may never be resolved. It is the application of policy to novel situations of what is fair, just and reasonable that has instigated the advancement of the neighbour principle.In other fields of law, the broader legal concepts of reasonableness and unconscionability are applied every day. The courts are in a state of uncertainty with regard to the dictum. It is evident that the law has had to expand considerably. So perhaps, in the future, the test of fair, just and reasonable as displayed in the Glencar31 case will be triumphant due to its conversion of the practical, everyday test for negligence into the legal test. Despite having its flaws, it still makes the law comprehensible to all. 29 30 31 Ibid at 13 Ibid at 13 Op cit 34

Use of descriptive statistics in my job as HR professional Free Essay Example, 1000 words

Critical Reflection As a HR professional, I have been involved in various activities meant to handle and ensure that employees’ issues are looked into carefully. I have handled a lot of employee issues over a long period of time and most these issues have been handled using statistical data. For instance, data that was obtained from surveys were used in making statistical graphs. Statistical graphs were also used in categorizing different set of employees as to make the work of employee monitoring easy (Osborn, 2005). Training within organizations should be flexible and the best methods in collecting data on training expatriates are through sampling. Sampling is effective in conducting trainings because it allows selection of set of tools and materials to be used in testing. Every employee is assigned different tasks which are stored differently so that salaries can be paid to these employees (Rigg, 2008). HR department is involved in monitoring the work put of all employees in the organization and thus they make use of timesheets. Timesheets are effective measuring the number of hours worked and if employees finish assigned duties on time. We will write a custom essay sample on Use of descriptive statistics in my job as HR professional or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now The training department that I headed was involved in preparing questionnaires for employees during re-fresher training. This was in order to understand if employees are familiar with company policies, strategies and tasks assigned to them. As a result, conclusive data has to be prepared to for training through use of sampling and data mining for training materials. This exercise requires the use of data collected through various means such as sampling, charts and graphs. As a professional, I rely heavily on statistical method due to the accuracy of these methods in reporting and analysing the effectiveness of undertaken activities. Charts are used in representing statistical data on issues to do with work output and to track the time taken by employees in implementing a certain project or task (Childs, 2005). I have undertaken several duties in different organizations over a ten year period and during this time I have made use of various statistical data in my research. During my stint as the head of recruitment, staff at our department made use of different data in recruiting employees, numerous interviews was conducted to ensure the right employees are selected for the job. Interviews are very useful statistical method of acquiring information from an individual or a group of people. Interviews bring out the character/personality of a specific person and thus this method was harnessed by the recruitment department.