Metacognition

Metacognition is "cognition about cognition", "thinking about thinking","knowing about knowing", becoming "aware of your awareness" and higher order thinking skills. It comes from the root word "meta", meaning beyond. It can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use particular strategies for learning or for problem solving. There are generally two components of metacognition: knowledge about cognition, and regulation of cognition.

Metamemory, defined as knowing about memory and mnemonic strategies, is an especially important form of metacognition. Academic research on metacognitive processing across cultures is in the early stages, but there are indications that further work may provide better outcomes in cross-cultural learning between teachers and students.

Some evolutionary psychologists hypothesize that metacognition is used as a survival tool, which would make metacognition the same across cultures.Writings on metacognition can be traced back at least as far as On the Soul and the Parva Naturalia of the Greek philosopher Aristotle.

Metacognitive-like processes are especially ubiquitous when it comes to the discussion of self-regulated learning. Being engaged in metacognition is a salient feature of good self-regulated learners. Reinforcing collective discussion of metacognition is a salient feature of self-critical and self-regulating social groups. The activities of strategy selection and application include those concerned with an ongoing attempt to plan, check, monitor, select, revise, evaluate, etc.

Metacognition is 'stable' in that learners' initial decisions derive from the pertinent facts about their cognition through years of learning experience. Simultaneously, it is also 'situated' in the sense that it depends on learners' familiarity with the task, motivation, emotion, and so forth. Individuals need to regulate their thoughts about the strategy they are using and adjust it based on the situation to which the strategy is being applied. At a professional level, this has led to emphasis on the development of reflective practice, particularly in the education and health-care professions.

Recently, the notion has been applied to the study of second language learners in the field of TESOL and applied linguistics in general (e.g., Wenden, 1987; Zhang, 2001, 2010). This new development has been much related to Flavell (1979), where the notion of metacognition is elaborated within a tripartite theoretical framework. Learner metacognition is defined and investigated by examining their person knowledge, task knowledge and strategy knowledge.

Wenden (1991) has proposed and used this framework and Zhang (2001) has adopted this approach and investigated second language learners' metacognition or metacognitive knowledge. In addition to exploring the relationships between learner metacognition and performance, researchers are also interested in the effects of metacognitively-oriented strategic instruction on reading comprehension (e.g., Garner, 1994, in first language contexts, and Chamot, 2005; Zhang, 2010). The efforts are aimed at developing learner autonomy, interdependence and self-regulation.

The concept of metacognition has also been applied to reader-response criticism. Narrative works of art, including novels, movies and musical compositions, can be characterized as metacognitive artifacts which are designed by the artist to anticipate and regulate the beliefs and cognitive processes of the recipient, for instance, how and in which order events and their causes and identities are revealed to the reader of a detective story. As Menakhem Perry has pointed out, mere order has profound effects on the aesthetical meaning of a text. Narrative works of art contain a representation of their own ideal reception process. They are something of a tool with which the creators of the work wish to attain certain aesthetical and even moral effects.

Forgetting- causes and problems

Forgetting or disremembering is the apparent loss or modification of information already encoded and stored in an individual's long-term memory. It is a spontaneous or gradual process in which old memories are unable to be recalled from memory storage. Forgetting also helps to reconcile the storage of new information with old knowledge. Problems with remembering, learning and retaining new information are a few of the most common complaints of older adults. Memory performance is usually related to the active functioning of three stages. These three stages are encoding, storage and retrieval. Many different factors influence the actual process of forgetting. An example of one of these factors could be the amount of time the new information is stored in the memory. Events involved with forgetting can happen either before or after the actual memory process. The amount of time the information is stored in the memory, depending on the minutes hours or even days, can increase or decrease depending on how well the information is encoded. Studies show that retention improves with increased rehearsal. This improvement occurs because rehearsal helps to transfer information into long-term memory – practise makes perfect.

For one thing, memory can be affected by medications. Especially if you take a variety of medines the combination might cause you to experience some confusion. This is especially true when people overlook the dose they are supposed to take and end up ingesting too much. The irony is that memory problems can cause some people to mistake the amounts they should take.

Another possibility is that Alzheimers has set in and is the major cause of memory problems. This disorder is one of several dementias that cause memory issues. At first, memory loss feels minor. At first it might be as benign as forgetting a word or two you are looking for. Gradually, it becomes more extensive and more problematic if Alzheimer’s is present. Usually, we think of the dementias as associated with older people but it can and does happen to those who are younger. Now, there are drugs that can delay the progress of this category of disease.

Another potential problem is depression and anxiety. It is well established that, when depressed or anxious, it is more difficult to concentrate with the result that memory is affected. With anti depressant medication and psychotherapy this usually improves as the depression reduces and ends.

It should go without saying that alcohol and drugs can cause forgetting. There are many drugs of abuse that affect the brain in ways that are unwanted. Most often, memory improves once the drug abuse stops.

With regard to alcohol, depending on how much alcohol is consumed, a person can suffer permanent brain damage including memory loss. Even without things going that far, alcohol can cause forgetting during the time one is drunk. That is why people who drink too much often cannot remember what they did or said when under the influence

Assessment and Evaluation in Education

Assessment and Evaluation

The Role of Assessment in Learning

Assessment plays a major role in how students learn, their motivation to learn, and how teachers teach.

Assessment is used for various purposes.

• Assessment for learning: where assessment helps teachers gain insight into what students understand in order to plan and guide instruction, and provide helpful feedback to students.
• Assessment as learning: where students develop an awareness of how they learn and use that awareness to adjust and advance their learning, taking an increased responsibility for their learning.
• Assessment of learning: where assessment informs students, teachers and parents, as well as the broader educational community, of achievement at a certain point in time in order to celebrate success, plan interventions and support continued progress.

Assessment must be planned with its purpose in mind. Assessment for, as and of learning all have a role to play in supporting and improving student learning, and must be appropriately balanced. The most important part of assessment is the interpretation and use of the information that is gleaned for its intended purpose.

Assessment is embedded in the learning process. It is tightly interconnected with curriculum and instruction. As teachers and students work towards the achievement of curriculum outcomes, assessment plays a constant role in informing instruction, guiding the student’s next steps, and checking progress and achievement. Teachers use many different processes and strategies for classroom assessment, and adapt them to suit the assessment purpose and needs of individual students.

Research and experience show that student learning is best supported when

• Instruction and assessment are based on clear learning goals
• Instruction and assessment are differentiated according to student learning needs
• Students are involved in the learning process (they understand the learning goal and the criteria for quality work, receive and use descriptive feedback, and take steps to adjust their performance)
• Assessment information is used to make decisions that support further learning
• Parents are well informed about their child’s learning, and work with the school to help plan and provide support
• Students, families, and the general public have confidence in the system

Psychology

Essay on Forgetting: Causes and Theories of Forgetting !

In simple terms, forgetting is the inability to remember. Psychologists generally use the term forgetting to refer to the apparent loss of information already encoded and stored in long- term memory. Munn (1967) defines forgetting as “the loss, permanent or temporary, of the ability to recall or recognise something learned earlier”.

It is true that we cannot retain all that we have learnt, much is forgotten. But sometimes what we think is forgotten may not be true, because the information due to lack of attention may not have reached STM from the sense organs. It may also be due to inadequate encoding and rehearsal, or else the information may not have been transferred from STM to LTM.

Causes of Forgetting:

1. Faulty Memory Process:

Sometimes we listen to many details but we encode only portion of the information in the form of gist- and not the actual words or details, and the same will be stored. Constructive process at work during the process of encoding distorts what is stored in memory and we remember the distortions.

At that time we think we forget, because what we remember is not an accurate representation of what has really happened. Here our memory does not match events as they actually occurred.

2. Interference:

An important cause of forgetting in everyday life is interference of learnt material. There are two kinds of interference:

a. Proactive inhibition:

If the earlier learning interferes with later learning and inhibits recall of new material, it is known as proactive inhibition. This usually happens when the previous learning is better than the present one. For example, we meet somebody in a party yesterday, today while remembering those names we recall the names of people we met last week.

b. Retroactive inhibition:

Inhibition of the earlier learning and recall by later learning is known as retroactive inhibition. The interpolated activity between original learning and its recall causes forgetting. It is called retroactive because the interference is with the memory of events that came before the interfering activity. For example, a student learnt about motivation in psychology last week, this week he learns about perception.

Now he tries to recall information about motivation but the points pertaining to perception will come to his memory.

3. Retrieval Problems:

Retrieval is necessary for recall. Some retrieval cues and reconstructive processes help in this process. These retrieval cues or remainders, direct the memory search to the appropriate part of the LTM section. Without appropriate retrieval cues, the sought- for items stored in LTM may not be found. This leads to forgetting.

4. Motivated Forgetting:

This is a kind of forgetting in which the individual intentionally forgets. However, the information stored can be retrieved and brought back to memory, but the individual does not want those memories. So he will repress them. It may be observed that generally people remember pleasant experiences than unpleasant ones.

5. Amnesia:

The term amnesia refers to loss of memory. It is a kind of memory disorder which occurs from a loss of what has already been stored. There are two kinds of amnesia.

i. Psychological amnesia:

This kind of amnesia takes place as a result of major disturbances in the process of encoding, storage and retrieval. There are different kinds of psychological amnesia:

a. Childhood amnesia:

This may be caused due to the inability to retrieve childhood memories which are unpleasant. These memories may cause feelings of guilt, hence they are repressed. Another reason may be due to differences in the ways of encoding.-During childhood language and experiences are encoded and stored in the nonverbal- form, but as the child develops and learns language, the information is stored in the verbal form. This leads to the retrieval problems making the child unable to recall the childhood memories.

b. Dream amnesia:

Every individual experiences dreams. But he will be unable to recall the contents of all dreams, because many of them are in disguised form, so there will be no cues to bring to memory.

c. Defensive amnesia:

Developed to depend the self respect and to overcome anxiety. The person suffering from this amnesia may forget his name, occupation, names of relatives and all other things except basic habits like eating, drinking, talking, etc. This kind of amnesia generally takes place when the individual is in a very critical situation which may cause damage to his self- respect. At times in this condition he may escape by running away to distant new places. This is called fugue. This amnesia may last for weeks, months or years.

(ii) Biological amnesia:

This amnesia is caused due to abnormal functioning of brain. Such abnormality may be due to causes such as, a blow on the head, temporary disturbances in blood supply to brain, certain drugs like, marijuana, alcohol, brain diseases and some other damages to brain.

These problems may result in amnesia called transient global amnesia which is a profound memory loss.

It is called global because all the stored information is lost and no new memories can be formed during this state. There are two types of such amnesia — Anterograde amnesia in which there will be inability to store new information from after the incident, and Retrograde amnesia in which there will be forgetting of the past memories before the incident.

Chronic alcoholism produce brain damage and leads to a disorder called Korsakoff syndrome in which memory loss is predominant. Arteriosclerosis and Senile dementia due to age and Alzheimer’s disease caused due to brain disease also cause amnesia.

In addition to these causes-passages of time, disuse, relative inactivity, absence of appropriate stimuli, obliterating memory stimuli, emotional shock, set or preparedness of the individual, meaningless material, etc. may also cause forgetting.

Inclusive Education

Inclusive education means that all students attend and are welcomed by their neighbourhood schools in age-appropriate, regular classes and are supported to learn, contribute and participate in all aspects of the life of the school.

Inclusive education is about how we develop and design our schools, classrooms, programs and activities so that all students learn and participate together.

Neighbourhood schools are the heart of our communities, and Inclusion BC believes they are essential for a quality inclusive education system. Therefore we believe it is important to support a public education system in B.C.

Benefits of Inclusive Education

All children benefit from inclusive education. It allows them to:

• Develop individual strengths and gifts, with high and appropriate expectations for each child.
• Work on individual goals while participating in the life of the classroom with other students their own age.
• Involve their parents in their education and in the activities of their local schools.
• Foster a school culture of respect and belonging. Inclusive education provides opportunities to learn about and accept individual differences, lessening the impact of harassment and bullying.
• Develop friendships with a wide variety of other children, each with their own individual needs and abilities.
• Positively affect both their school and community to appreciate diversity and inclusion on a broader level.

• Inclusive education differs from the 'integration' or 'mainstreaming' model of education, which tended to be concerned principally with disability and special educational needs, and learners changing or becoming 'ready for' or deserving of accommodation by the mainstream. By contrast, inclusion is about the child's right to participate and the school's duty to accept the child.
• A premium is placed upon full participation by students with disabilities and upon respect for their social, civil, and educational rights. Feeling included is not limited to physical and cognitive disabilities, but also includes the full range of human diversity with respect to ability, language, culture, gender, age and of other forms of human differences.Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett wrote, "student performance and behaviour in educational tasks can be profoundly affected by the way we feel, we are seen and judged by others. When we expect to be viewed as inferior, our abilities seem to diminish"

Philosopy

EDUCATED UNEMPLOYMENT AND REMEDIES

nishanayeem
3 years ago
1. Introduction

A college degree has long been viewed as the ticket to a good job and social mobility, but many recent college graduates are finding that their investments in education are not paying off. It is true that young people with a bachelor’s degree are more likely to find a job than their less-educated peers, but recent graduates today suffer from high unemployment rates, declining wages, lower-quality jobs, and few opportunities for advancement.

Unemployment is a situation of not getting the work and wages with eligible conditions. People are getting education but not getting the jobs is educated unemployment. Unemployment is the most dangerous problem of each and every developing countries now a days. The root causes of the educated unemployment is to be analysed in detail, but we can say a major factor being ‘The government’s policies to downsize employees’. In this article we will see what the main causes of educated unemployment are and what the remedies are.

2. Main Causes Of Educated Unemployment

2.1. Economic Condition

Economic conditions are the main factor in unemployment. Once a company fails to pay its employees then there is no choice for the employees, they have to leave job. With no reason to continue paying them, they lose their jobs as the job simply disappears. Due to weak economic conditions company become unable to pay its employees. This was the status at times of the great Economic recession in developed countries too. India in spite being a developing country with its GDP growth have got a respectful economic stability status at the time of recession. But in most of the developing countries the economic condition plays a significant role in employment. Educated youth need employability and wage package that meets the skill they possess, but due to weak economic conditions there is no such opportunities or packages. Here the Government policies have great effect, it is to be polished in a way to utilise the full manpower the country has.

Employers are struggling hard to attract them with huge pay-packages that is increasing their production cost significantly. The employers are losing their competitive edge in global markets. Global slowdown only adds to the crisis. Corporations are now facing dual problem.

2.2. Lack of Skill

India economy mainly based on Agriculture, but at recent times there is significant boom in the IT and industrial growth. There are large number of employment opportunities in IT and industrial sectors. Despite large numbers of educated young, there is shortage of skilled manpower. There are unemployed youths and the companies are facing shortage of manpower.

Why these educated youths not absorbed by the new job sectors, as per the surveys and studies, they are mainly lacking three types of skills required to be placed in these jobs.

Communication skill
Analytical skill and problem solving
Domain
60% candidates are screened due to lack of communication skills, 25% percent are screened for analytical skills and 5% percent for their lack of knowledge in their respective domain. Hence 90% of educated youth force are lacking in one of these three main skills required for job and employment. Only 10% of educated youth of India is employable.

The problem lies in the education system. Indian education system has a mismatch with the requirements of the industries. Institutes teach whatever they want. They do not teach what industries require. Industries do not require what institutes teach. The syllabus committees have not been interfacing with the industries. Several big industries have to set-up their own in house training program to fight with the problem.

Most of the newly employed youths are compulsorily undergone employers own training program. This enhances cost of employers enormously. It also wastes time.

2.3. Technology Growth

The growth of new technologies are also be considered for unemployment to certain extend. Today there are machines that can do 10 days of 100 employees work in 1 day with 1 operator, a computer can do documentation works which included 100s of persons work. In some areas technology inclusion is a must for the growth of the economy and at the same time it reduces chances of job opportunities. The technology growth points to job opportunities to certain sector of specially educated people but leaves behind a mass.

2.4. Population and migration

Uncontrolled population growth and migration of foreign job seekers could also be counted as a cause of unemployment. Overpopulation is defined as a condition where a country’s human population exceeds the carrying capacity of its environment, as the population increases number job seekers increases but the available jobs not proportionally increased, resulting in unemployment. Unemployment is directly proportional to the population.

Migration is also a big concern in unemployment. When dealing with migration both in and out of the country to be noted. Migration of qualified skilled professionals from the country seeking better jobs outside, migration of people from neighbouring countries seeking jobs are also boosts the concerns in unemployment.

2.5. Some Other Reasons behind Educated Unemployment

b) Recessions
Inflation
Disability to do the job
Nepotism
Demand of highly skilled labour.
Attitude towards employers
Undulations in the business cycles
Unsatisfied incomes or salaries of the employees
Young people are not ready to take jobs which are considered to be socially degrading or lowly
3. Effects Of Educated Unemployment

It has been observed that one year of unemployment reduces the life expectancy by five years. Hypertension, cardiac problems, psychoneurosis, depression, suicide are rising among youth as also other behaviours including joining anti-social groups. Alcoholism, drug addiction, smoking, and rash driving behaviours have increased. These behaviours are to take revenge against the society which has made the youth develop low self-esteem due to unemployment or not being able to be a productive member of the society. The suicide rate in the high school going children has been increasing steadily.

3.1. Some Other Effects

Low economic growth.
Unemployment can lead to emotional and mental stress.
A person can also get demoralised, he can do wrong things like he can indulge in the habits like alcohol and drug abuse or even may commit suicide.
Higher income inequalities and disparities leading to nothing but poverty
4. Remedies

Although young workers are a unique group, their currently high unemployment levels do not require a unique solution. The thing that will bring down the unemployment rate of young workers most quickly and effectively is strong job growth overall. Focusing on policies that will generate demand for one countries goods and services (and therefore demand for workers who provide them)—policies such as fiscal relief to states, substantial additional investment in infrastructure, expanded safety net measures, and direct job creation programs in communities particularly hard-hit by unemployment—is the key to giving young people a fighting chance as they enter the labour market during the aftermath of current situations.

4.1. Efforts Made by Individual

After 10 + 2 comes a very crucial period where we almost get puzzled to what stream to go into. This is the time we should sit down and think what will be best for us. We will not find carpenters, shoemakers, tailors or even barbers in this queue of employment searchers. This clearly shows the failure of modern educational system and insolvency of our policy makers. So if we really want to solve the unemployment problem, the educational system must be made job oriented. Now our country does not need only clerks, it is in need of persons who can serve her by their physical and mental skill.

Models of Education for Children

There are a dizzying number of theories out there about American education. Smaller classrooms are the solution one day, the next, iPads. Glenn Harlan Reynolds of Instapundit takes on these ideas and makes his own predictions in his new book, The New School. I talked with him about his conclusion that the future of American education is rooted in technology, choice, and customization.

Modeling, explaining, and demonstrating are essential teaching activities if all children are to learn to read and write. Teachers model the reading and writing processes by engaging in them while children observe. Reading aloud to children, for instance, provides a model of how reading sounds and how stories go. Composing a list of things needed for a project provides a model of one function of writing. Talking about how a newspaper story made us worry provides a model of response to text. Models are essential, but models do not give children much in the way of information about how proficient readers actually accomplish such feats.

How do online courses meet today’s needs?

My daughter did almost all of her high school on online school. We found that pretty satisfactory because that way we didn’t have to do the homeschooling. She was able to do it selectively. As an example of the kind flexibility that technology brings, her way to do a class was to spend three weeks nonstop on a class. She finished a year’s worth of work in one class in three weeks of intensive effort instead of little dribs and drabs along the year the way they do in public school. And that’s something you couldn’t do without a technological platform that lets you move at your own pace.

Well, things change when there is more pressure to change than there is ability to resist the change, and I think we are approaching that point. I quote Herbert Stein, “Something that can’t go on forever, won’t.” I think we are getting pretty close to that. I mean there are really starting to be signs of change and in fact everything is happening faster than expected. I shipped off the manuscript for this book in June and I have been reading stories in the Chronicle of Higher Educationand Insider Higher Ed and stuff and it’s like, “Oh no this is happening too soon! This shouldn’t happen until after my book comes out! What if everything I predict happens before January when the book comes out?” The thing about this is this kind of change tends to happen kind of like the quote about bankruptcy in The Great Gatsby, you know, very slowly and then all at once. I think that we're coming to the end of the “very slowly” phase and getting to the “all at once.” I think there is going to be fairly dramatic change and a lot of new models. Some of these new models won’t work that well and some of them will, and there will be a period of where are we now? And then it’ll work out.

Technology

Correlation & Significance
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This lesson expands on the statistical methods for examining the relationship between two different measurement variables.  Remember that overall statistical methods are one of two types: descriptive methods (that describe attributes of a data set) and inferential methods (that try to draw conclusions about a population based on sample data).
Correlation
Many relationships between two measurement variables tend to fall close to a straight line. In other words, the two variables exhibit a linear relationship. The graphs in Figure 6.2 and Figure 6.3 show approximately linear relationships between the two variables.
It is also helpful to have a single number that will measure the strength of the linear relationship between the two variables. This number is the correlation. The correlation is a single number that indicates how close the values fall to a straight line.  In other words, the correlation quantifies both the strength and direction of the linear relationship between two measurement variables. Table 6.1 shows the correlations for data used in Examples 6.1-6.3. (Note: you would use software to calculate a correlation.)
Table 6.1. Correlations for Examples 6.1-6.3
Example
Variables
Correlation ( r )
Example 6.1
Height and Weight
r = .541
Example 6.2
Distance and Monthly Rent
r = -.903
Example 6.3
Study Hours and Exercise Hours
r = .109
Watch the movie below to get a feel for how the correlation relates to the strength of the linear association in a scatterplot.
Below are some features about the correlation.
The correlation of a sample is represented by the letter r.
The range of possible values for a correlation is between -1 to +1.
A positive correlation indicates a positive linear association like the one in example 5.8. The strength of the positive linear association increases as the correlation becomes closer to +1.
A negative correlation indicates a negative linear association. The strength of the negative linear association increases as the correlation becomes closer to -1.
A correlation of either +1 or -1 indicates a perfect linear relationship. This is hard to find with real data.
A correlation of 0 indicates either that:
there is no linear relationship between the two variables, and/or
the best straight line through the data is horizontal.
The correlation is independent of the original units of the two variables. This is because crrelation depends only on the relationship betweeen the standard scores of each variable.
The correlation is calculated using every observation in the data set.
The correlation is a descriptive result.
As you compare the scatterplots of the data from the three examples with their actual correlations, you should notice that findings are consistent for each example.
In Example 6.1, the scatterplot shows a positive association between weight and height.  However, there is still quite a bit of scatter around the pattern. Consequently, a correlation of .541 is reasonable. It is common for a correlation to decrease as sample size increases.
In Example 6.2, the scatterplot shows a negative association between monthly rent and distance from campus. Since the data points are very close to a straight line it is not surprising the correlation is -.903.
In Example 6.3, the scatterplot does not show any strong association between exercise hours/week and study hours/week. This lack of association is supported by a correlation of .109.
Statistical Significance
A statistically significant relationship is one that is large enough to be unlikely to have occurred in the sample if there's no relationship in the population. The issue of whether a result is unlikely to happen by chance is an important one in establishing cause-and-effect relationships from experimental data.  If an experiment is well planned, randomization makes the various treatment groups similar to each other at the beginning of the experiment except for the luck of the draw that determines who gets into which group.  Then, if subjects are treated the same during the experiment (e.g. via double blinding), there can be two possible explanations for differences seen: 1) the treatment(s) had an effect or 2) differences are due to the luck of the draw.  Thus, showing that random chance is a poor explanation for a relationship seen in the sample provides important evidence that the treatment had an effect.
The issue of statistical significance is also applied to observational studies - but in that case there are many possible explanations for seeing an observed relationship, so a finding of significance cannot help in establishing a cause-and-effect relationship.  For example, an explanatory variable may be associated with the response because:
Changes in the explanatory variable causes changes in the response;
Changes in the response variable causes changes in the explanatory variable;
Changes in the explanatory variable contribute, along with other variables, to changes in the response;
A confounding variable or a common cause affects both the explanatory and response variables;
Both variables have changed together over time or space; or
The association may be the result of coincidence (the only issue on this list that is addressed by statistical significance).
Remember the key lesson:  correlation demonstrates association - but association is not the same as causation, even with a finding of significance. 

Philosophy

EDUCATED UNEMPLOYMENT AND REMEDIES

nishanayeem
3 years ago
1. Introduction

A college degree has long been viewed as the ticket to a good job and social mobility, but many recent college graduates are finding that their investments in education are not paying off. It is true that young people with a bachelor’s degree are more likely to find a job than their less-educated peers, but recent graduates today suffer from high unemployment rates, declining wages, lower-quality jobs, and few opportunities for advancement.

Unemployment is a situation of not getting the work and wages with eligible conditions. People are getting education but not getting the jobs is educated unemployment. Unemployment is the most dangerous problem of each and every developing countries now a days. The root causes of the educated unemployment is to be analysed in detail, but we can say a major factor being ‘The government’s policies to downsize employees’. In this article we will see what the main causes of educated unemployment are and what the remedies are.

2. Main Causes Of Educated Unemployment

2.1. Economic Condition

Economic conditions are the main factor in unemployment. Once a company fails to pay its employees then there is no choice for the employees, they have to leave job. With no reason to continue paying them, they lose their jobs as the job simply disappears. Due to weak economic conditions company become unable to pay its employees. This was the status at times of the great Economic recession in developed countries too. India in spite being a developing country with its GDP growth have got a respectful economic stability status at the time of recession. But in most of the developing countries the economic condition plays a significant role in employment. Educated youth need employability and wage package that meets the skill they possess, but due to weak economic conditions there is no such opportunities or packages. Here the Government policies have great effect, it is to be polished in a way to utilise the full manpower the country has.

Employers are struggling hard to attract them with huge pay-packages that is increasing their production cost significantly. The employers are losing their competitive edge in global markets. Global slowdown only adds to the crisis. Corporations are now facing dual problem.

2.2. Lack of Skill

India economy mainly based on Agriculture, but at recent times there is significant boom in the IT and industrial growth. There are large number of employment opportunities in IT and industrial sectors. Despite large numbers of educated young, there is shortage of skilled manpower. There are unemployed youths and the companies are facing shortage of manpower.

Why these educated youths not absorbed by the new job sectors, as per the surveys and studies, they are mainly lacking three types of skills required to be placed in these jobs.

Communication skill
Analytical skill and problem solving
Domain
60% candidates are screened due to lack of communication skills, 25% percent are screened for analytical skills and 5% percent for their lack of knowledge in their respective domain. Hence 90% of educated youth force are lacking in one of these three main skills required for job and employment. Only 10% of educated youth of India is employable.

The problem lies in the education system. Indian education system has a mismatch with the requirements of the industries. Institutes teach whatever they want. They do not teach what industries require. Industries do not require what institutes teach. The syllabus committees have not been interfacing with the industries. Several big industries have to set-up their own in house training program to fight with the problem.

Most of the newly employed youths are compulsorily undergone employers own training program. This enhances cost of employers enormously. It also wastes time.

2.3. Technology Growth

The growth of new technologies are also be considered for unemployment to certain extend. Today there are machines that can do 10 days of 100 employees work in 1 day with 1 operator, a computer can do documentation works which included 100s of persons work. In some areas technology inclusion is a must for the growth of the economy and at the same time it reduces chances of job opportunities. The technology growth points to job opportunities to certain sector of specially educated people but leaves behind a mass.

2.4. Population and migration

Uncontrolled population growth and migration of foreign job seekers could also be counted as a cause of unemployment. Overpopulation is defined as a condition where a country’s human population exceeds the carrying capacity of its environment, as the population increases number job seekers increases but the available jobs not proportionally increased, resulting in unemployment. Unemployment is directly proportional to the population.

Migration is also a big concern in unemployment. When dealing with migration both in and out of the country to be noted. Migration of qualified skilled professionals from the country seeking better jobs outside, migration of people from neighbouring countries seeking jobs are also boosts the concerns in unemployment.

2.5. Some Other Reasons behind Educated Unemployment

b) Recessions
Inflation
Disability to do the job
Nepotism
Demand of highly skilled labour.
Attitude towards employers
Undulations in the business cycles
Unsatisfied incomes or salaries of the employees
Young people are not ready to take jobs which are considered to be socially degrading or lowly

Psyschology

Forgetting

In simple terms, forgetting is the inability to remember. Psychologists generally use the term forgetting to refer to the apparent loss of information already encoded and stored in long- term memory. Munn (1967) defines forgetting as “the loss, permanent or temporary, of the ability to recall or recognise something learned earlier”.

It is true that we cannot retain all that we have learnt, much is forgotten. But sometimes what we think is forgotten may not be true, because the information due to lack of attention may not have reached STM from the sense organs. It may also be due to inadequate encoding and rehearsal, or else the information may not have been transferred from STM to LTM.

Causes of Forgetting:

1. Faulty Memory Process:

Sometimes we listen to many details but we encode only portion of the information in the form of gist- and not the actual words or details, and the same will be stored. Constructive process at work during the process of encoding distorts what is stored in memory and we remember the distortions.

At that time we think we forget, because what we remember is not an accurate representation of what has really happened. Here our memory does not match events as they actually occurred.

2. Interference:

An important cause of forgetting in everyday life is interference of learnt material. There are two kinds of interference:

a. Proactive inhibition:

If the earlier learning interferes with later learning and inhibits recall of new material, it is known as proactive inhibition. This usually happens when the previous learning is better than the present one. For example, we meet somebody in a party yesterday, today while remembering those names we recall the names of people we met last week.

b. Retroactive inhibition:

Inhibition of the earlier learning and recall by later learning is known as retroactive inhibition. The interpolated activity between original learning and its recall causes forgetting. It is called retroactive because the interference is with the memory of events that came before the interfering activity. For example, a student learnt about motivation in psychology last week, this week he learns about perception.

Now he tries to recall information about motivation but the points pertaining to perception will come to his memory.

3. Retrieval Problems:

Retrieval is necessary for recall. Some retrieval cues and reconstructive processes help in this process. These retrieval cues or remainders, direct the memory search to the appropriate part of the LTM section. Without appropriate retrieval cues, the sought- for items stored in LTM may not be found. This leads to forgetting.

4. Motivated Forgetting:

This is a kind of forgetting in which the individual intentionally forgets. However, the information stored can be retrieved and brought back to memory, but the individual does not want those memories. So he will repress them. It may be observed that generally people remember pleasant experiences than unpleasant ones.

5. Amnesia:

The term amnesia refers to loss of memory. It is a kind of memory disorder which occurs from a loss of what has already been stored. There are two kinds of amnesia.

i. Psychological amnesia:

This kind of amnesia takes place as a result of major disturbances in the process of encoding, storage and retrieval. There are different kinds of psychological amnesia:

a. Childhood amnesia:

This may be caused due to the inability to retrieve childhood memories which are unpleasant. These memories may cause feelings of guilt, hence they are repressed. Another reason may be due to differences in the ways of encoding.-During childhood language and experiences are encoded and stored in the nonverbal- form, but as the child develops and learns language, the information is stored in the verbal form. This leads to the retrieval problems making the child unable to recall the childhood memories.

b. Dream amnesia:

Every individual experiences dreams. But he will be unable to recall the contents of all dreams, because many of them are in disguised form, so there will be no cues to bring to memory.

c. Defensive amnesia:

Developed to depend the self respect and to overcome anxiety. The person suffering from this amnesia may forget his name, occupation, names of relatives and all other things except basic habits like eating, drinking, talking, etc. This kind of amnesia generally takes place when the individual is in a very critical situation which may cause damage to his self- respect. At times in this condition he may escape by running away to distant new places. This is called fugue. This amnesia may last for weeks, months or years.

(ii) Biological amnesia:

This amnesia is caused due to abnormal functioning of brain. Such abnormality may be due to causes such as, a blow on the head, temporary disturbances in blood supply to brain, certain drugs like, marijuana, alcohol, brain diseases and some other damages to brain.

These problems may result in amnesia called transient global amnesia which is a profound memory loss.

It is called global because all the stored information is lost and no new memories can be formed during this state. There are two types of such amnesia — Anterograde amnesia in which there will be inability to store new information from after the incident, and Retrograde amnesia in which there will be forgetting of the past memories before the incident.

Chronic alcoholism produce brain damage and leads to a disorder called Korsakoff syndrome in which memory loss is predominant. Arteriosclerosis and Senile dementia due to age and Alzheimer’s disease caused due to brain disease also cause amnesia.

In addition to these causes-passages of time, disuse, relative inactivity, absence of appropriate stimuli, obliterating memory stimuli, emotional shock, set or preparedness of the individual, meaningless material, etc. may also cause forgetting.

English

Copy writing

what is copywriting?

Copywriting is the process of writing advertising promotional materials. Copywriters are responsible for the text on brochures, billboards, websites, emails, advertisements, catalogs, and more.

This text is known as “copy.” Copy is everywhere — it’s part of a $2.3 trillion industry worldwide.

Unlike news or editorial writing, copywriting is all about getting the reader to take action. That action might be to purchase, opt-in, or engage with a product, service, or company.

That’s why a copywriter is often referred to as “a salesman in print.”

Copywriting should not be confused with “copyright.” Copyright means an individual or company has the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute someone’s work (such as books, music, artistic items). The purpose of a copyright is to protect that material and prevent illegal use of it by unauthorized agents. The owner designates the material is copyrighted with the symbol ©.

What kind of qualifications do you need to be a copywriter?

Zero! There are successful copywriters with college degrees and some who didn't finish high school. Some copywriters are only 18 and some are retired. Some copywriters are stay-at-home moms and some left six-figure corporate jobs.

The only thing you need is a computer and an Internet connection. Everything else can be learned. If you can write a letter to a friend, you have all the qualifications you need to get started now.

Can you really make six-figures as a copywriter?

Yes, and many copywriters do! But, how much you make depends on how much time and effort you put into it.

For example, one copywriter I know works decent hours, not only on copywriting, but also on the growth and development of her freelance business. She makes over $120,000 a year.

Another freelance copywriter is a real go-getter. He has a talent for copywriting and he's a terrific networker and business developer. He has negotiated some lucrative contracts with a number of big companies and will be making more than $300,000 this year!

If you don't want to work full-time, that's okay. You can also make a very good living working just part-time.

Another copywriter I know wants to earn some extra money for vacations and her family’s savings plan. She works some during the evenings and on weekends and makes $25,000 a year. (Although she’s hoping to make $50K this year!) Not bad for a very part-time job.

Another example is a copywriter I know who is a stay-at-home single mom. She has two young children to care for so she only works four hours a day in her freelance copywriting business. She makes $75,000 a year!

Meet real people who make a very good living through their copywriting jobs.

A great thing about being a freelance copywriter is you can work as much or as little as you want. It all depends on how much you want to earn and how often you want to work.

Where do I learn how to become a copywriter?

While you don't need any formal qualifications to become a copywriter, you do need someone to show you the ropes.

That's why AWAI created the Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting.

All the copywriters I’ve met — like the ones mentioned above — started their successful freelance copywriting careers by taking this program. Its step-by-step instructions prove anyone can quickly go from asking “What is copywriting?” to learning how to be a freelance copywriter.

There has never been a better time to become a copywriter. Companies are desperate for good freelance copywriters to help them sell their products and services.

Get started today and in no time, you could be the one they call. Learn how to choose the best copywriting course for you.

Learn about various types of copywriting training, and choose the best copywriting course that’s right for you.

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English

Social Constructivism
The level of potential development is the level at which learning takes place. It comprises cognitive structures that are still in the process of maturing, but which can only mature under the guidance of or in collaboration with others.
Background
View of Knowledge
View of Learning
View of Motivation
Implications for Teaching
Reference
Background
Social constructivism is a variety of cognitive constructivism that emphasizes the collaborative nature of much learning. Social constructivism was developed by post-revolutionary Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky was a cognitivist, but rejected the assumption made by cognitivists such as Piaget and Perry that it was possible to separate learning from its social context. He argued that all cognitive functions originate in, and must therefore be explained as products of social interactions and that learning was not simply the assimilation and accommodation of new knowledge by learners; it was the process by which learners were integrated into a knowledge community. According to Vygotsky (1978, 57),
Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level and, later on, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals.Vygotsky’s theory of social learning has been expanded upon by numerous later theorists and researchers.
View of Knowledge
Cognitivists such as Piaget and Perry see knowledge as actively constructed by learners in response to interactions with environmental stimuli. Vygotsky emphasized the role of language and culture in cognitive development. According to Vygotsky, language and culture play essential roles both in human intellectual development and in how humans perceive the world. Humans’ linguistic abilities enable them to overcome the natural limitations of their perceptual field by imposing culturally defined sense and meaning on the world. Language and culture are the frameworks through which humans experience, communicate, and understand reality. Vygotsky states (1968, 39),
A special feature of human perception … is the perception of real objects … I do not see the world simply in color and shape but also as a world with sense and meaning. I do not merely see something round and black with two hands; I see a clock …
Language and the conceptual schemes that are transmitted by means of language are essentially social phenomena. As a result, human cognitive structures are, Vygotsky believed, essentially socially constructed. Knowledge is not simply constructed, it is co-constructed.

Behaviourist Approach

Behaviourists regard all behaviour as a response to a stimulus. They assume that what we do is determined by the environment we are in, which provides stimuli to which we respond, and the environments we have been in in the past, which caused us to learn to respond to stimuli in particular ways. Behaviourists are unique amongst psychologists in believing that it is unnecessary to speculate about internal mental processes when explaining behaviour: it is enough to know which stimuli elicit which responses. 

Behaviourists explain behaviour in terms of (1) the stimuli that elicit it and (2) the events that caused the person to learn to respond to the stimulus that way. Behaviourists use two processes to explain how people learn: classical conditioning and operant conditioning. In classical conditioning, people learn to associate two stimuli when they occur together, such that the response originally elicited by one stimulus is transferred to another. The person learns to produce an existing response to a new stimulus. For example, Watson & Rayner (1920) conditioned a young boy (‘Little Albert’) to respond with anxiety to the stimulus of a white rat. They achieved this by pairing the rat with a loud noise that already made Albert anxious. The anxiety response was transferred to the rat because it was presented together with the noise. The response also generalized to other stimuli that resembled the rat, including a rabbit and a fur coat. Over time, conditioned responses like this gradually diminish in a process called extinction. In operant conditioning, people learn to perform new behaviours through the consequences of the things they do. If a behaviour they produce is followed by a reinforcement then the likelihood of that behaviour being repeated increases in future (the behaviour is strengthened). A consequence can be reinforcing in two ways: either the person gets something good (positive reinforcement) or they avoid something bad (negative reinforcement). Conversely, if a behaviour is followed by a punishment then the likelihood of that behaviour being repeated in future decreases (the behaviour is weakened). Whereas classical conditioning only allows the person to produce existing responses to new stimuli, operant conditioning allows them to learn new responses. 

The main strengths of the behaviourist approach come from the methods it uses. The insistence on objectivity, control over variables and precise measurement means that the studies carried out by behaviourists tend to be very reliable, and the behaviourists can be credited with introducing the scientific method into psychology. The drawback of these methods, however, is that behaviour may be studied under very artificial conditions than do not reflect real-world contexts very well (although this criticism clearly does not apply to all behaviourist studies). The widespread use of animals is a source of criticism. Whilst conditioning can be observed in most species, there are genetic influences on what different species can and cannot learn which reflect their different evolutionary histories (e.g. rats can be conditioned to respond to tastes but not smells). This means that generalizations between species must be made with more caution than many behaviourists apply. 

The behaviorist approach is deterministic: people’s behaviour is assumed to be entirely controlled by their environment and their prior learning, so they do not play any part in choosing their own actions. The approach takes the nurture side of the nature-nurture debate, believing that apart from a few innate reflexes and the capacity for learning, all complex behaviour is learned from the environment. Their insistence that all learning can be accounted for in terms of law-governed processes like classical and operant conditioning, reflects a nomological approach to studying human behaviour (although behaviourists never ignore individual differences, since every person’s history of learning is unique). The behaviourists’ view that all behaviour, no matter how complex, can be broken down into the fundamental processes of conditioning makes it a highly reductionist approach to psychology.   

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