Once Upon a time x constant image of your face

Guilt is a common feeling that humans feel when they have done something wrong. The poets Gabriel Okra and Dennis brutes both express this feeling of guilt in their personae backgrounds. Therefore, okra's â€Å"Once upon a Time† and brute's â€Å"It is the Constant Image of Your Face† are poems portrayed with guilt, but they show it in different situations. The body of both poems have a specific situation happening. In the poem â€Å"Once upon a Time† the persona wishes to be young again an forget all the lessons he has taught himself.He admits of having to put on a â€Å"mask â€Å"depending on who he is in company with, however he wishes to return to his childhood days when he would laugh a honest laughter. The persona speaks to his son about the times when people WOUld Seem to be sincere and caring when dealing with one another. In the poem â€Å"It is the Constant Image of Your Face† the persona chooses his woman over his county. The persona looks at his love for his country along with his mistress and the heartbreak that is inflicted with his choices.The persona admits that they cannot make excuses for his mistress does not take precedence over the personae country, however he still commits treason against his country by being seduced by his mistress's beauty and protection. The persona hopes that his country' will forgive him for choosing his mistress. In both the poems the personae give a feeling of guilt in their events. In the poem â€Å"Once Upon a Time† the poet creates contrast be;en â€Å"heart† and â€Å"faces†. â€Å"Hearts† suggest a deep honest feeling and emotion.Thus, when people shook hands â€Å"with their hearts†, their emotion was true and real. However, when they laugh ‘With their teeth†, not with their eyes. This suggests that the eyes are like the windows of the soul thus letting us see how a person truly feels. In the second poem, â€Å"It is the Constant Im age of Your Face† the persona reflects on the image of someone he cares for. The persona admits that both him and his mistress can â€Å"plead excuses† for his behavior because the woman does not take precedence over his country. He is also feeling guilt and sadness because of what he has done.He has committed treason against his country and he hopes his country will pardon him because of his love for his country and woman. The two poems show contrast through literary devices. Personifications and oxymoron are used by the poets in their poems. In the poem ‘it is the Constant Image of Your Face' the phrase ‘heart's Treachery' is an oxymoron used.

Anatomy and Physiology for Health and Social Care Essay

Task2: The main tissue types of the body and the role these play in two named organs of the body. P2: Outline the structure of the main tissues of the body There are many different types of cells in the human body. These cells would not be able to function on their own, they are all part of a large organism that is called – you. The two named organs that I have chosen for this assignment are the intestines and the heart. Tissues All cells group together within the body to form tissue, a collection of similar cells group together to perform a specialized function. There are four primary tissue types in the human body – epithelium, connective tissue, nervous and the muscle tissue. Epithelial tissue- This tissue is specialised to cover the whole part of the body lining of all of the internal and external body surfaces, they are packed tightly together to form continuous layers that serve as linings in different parts of the body. Epithelial tissue serves as membranes lining organs and helping to keep the body’s organs separate, in place and protected. Some examples of epithelial tissue are the outer layer of the skin, the inside of the mouth and stomach, and the tissue surrounding the body’s organs. These kinds of tissues can be divided into two groups depending on the number of layers that it has. An Epithelial tissue which is only one cell thick is known as Simple epithelia, if it consists of several layers then it is known as Compound Epithelia. Epithelial tissue In the Intestines- The apical surface of epithelial cells usually have tiny projections called microvilli. These function to increase the surface area. For example, microvilli on intestinal cells increase the surface area open for absorption. Absorption is an important function of epithelial tissue within the intestines. The surface of the small intestine is lined with simple columnar epithelium. This type of epithelium appears as a single layer of tall, column-shaped cells with oblong nuclei. The primary function of this type of epithelium is absorption of nutrients, secretion of digestive juices as well as secretion of mucus by goblet cells. The surface area of the small intestine is increased by outward finger-like extension sand inward indentations, as villi and crypts. Both of these structures are lined with simple columnar epithelium. In the heart- The epithelial tissue protects the heart from becoming damaged from the lobes that are in the heart against the lungs; it provides an extra barrier of protection from injuries. Epithelial tissues line all the ducts and glands within the heart and protect it with an exterior membrane. P2: Outline the structure of the main tissues of the body The Intestine P2: Outline the structure of the main tissues of the body The Heart Connective tissue- There are many types of connective tissue that are widely distributed throughout the body that lie beneath the epithelial tissue. This type of tissue does not contain many cells, as they are separated from each other by an intercellular ground substance, (matrix), they are hidden by the cells. It is made up of either liquid, solid, or connective tissue, within the matrix there are many types of connecting fibres, such as collagen and elastic fibres. The function of the connective tissue is to support, bind, cover, protect and give structure to the body. Most types of connective tissue contain fibrous strands of the protein collagen that add strength to connective tissue. Some examples of connective tissue include the inner layers of skin, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, areolar, adipose bone and fat tissue. In addition to these more recognizable forms of connective tissue, blood is also considered a form of connective tissue. Cartilage tissue is a smooth, firm substance that protects ends of the bones from friction during movement and they can be found at the end of our bones in mobile joints, the front ends of the ribs, also in parts of our nose and ears. Our bone tissues are made of a much harder substance than the cartilage, but they can be worn away by friction. They are tough on the outside, but on the inside they have a sponge-like design that helps to reduce the weight while retaining strength. They are designed to maintain the body’s structure and support the body’s movement and are used to protect weaker tissues, such as the brain,  lungs and heart. P2: Outline the structure of the main tissues of the body Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in human’s that delivers necessary substances such as, nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Bones have a rigid structure that constitutes part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a dense type of connective tissue. Cartilage is a flexible connective tissue found in many areas in the body including the joints between bones, the rib cage, the ear, the nose, the elbow, the knee, the ankle, the bronchial tubes and the intervertebral discs. It is not as hard and rigid as bone but is stiffer and less flexible than muscle. Areolar tissue is a common type of connective tissue, also referred to as ‘loose connective tissue’. It is strong enough to bind different tissue types together, yet soft enough to provide flexibility and cushioning. Adipose tissue (fatty tissue) it provides insulation and protection of organs, muscle fibres, nerves, and supports blood vessels. It protects us from excessive heat loss or heat increase and also acts as a shock absorber to protect against injury. In the intestine- The lumen is the cavity where digested food passes through and from where nutrients are absorbed. Both intestines share a general structure with the whole gut, and are composed of several layers. Going from inside the lumen radially outwards, one passes the mucosa (glandular epithelium and muscularis mucosa), submucosa, muscularis externa (made up of inner circular and outer longitudinal), and lastly serosa. Serosa is made up of loose connective tissue and coated in mucus to prevent friction damage from the intestine rubbing against other tissue. Holding all this in place are the mesenteries which suspend the intestine in the abdominal cavity and stop it being disturbed when a person is physically active. In the heart- Connective tissue provides the final pathway for diffusion of nutrients, oxygen, waste and metabolites to and from the cells of the body. All blood vessels are embedded in connective tissue. The only cells which receive their sustenance directly from the blood are the endothelial cells lining the vessels themselves. All of the other cells are supplied via diffusion through intermediary connective tissue. The transport functions of blood and connective tissue cannot be separated. The heart and circulatory system simply facilitate the movement of this travelling tissue. The valves in the heart are also made from connective tissues, they control the amount of blood that is passed through the heart and into the blood stream, and it also helps to reduce the flow back to the heart. Nervous tissue- The nervous tissue includes the brain, spinal cord and the nerves throughout the organism, it contains two types of cell they are the neurons and glial cells. Nerve tissue has the ability to generate and conduct electrical signals in the body. These electrical messages are managed by nerve tissue in the brain and transmitted down the spinal cord to the body. The nervous tissue, main function is to carry messages throughout the body, gathering and feeding back information via electronic impulses along specialised cells called neurons. It is like an information speedway, it directs the drive force of the nervous system by sending messages, to ensure that all of the systems are able to work together within the body, this is to maintain that the internal conditions are needed to enable the body to respond to motivation. In the heart- The nervous tissue in the heart controls the heart’s main functions. It is controlled by specialised nerves called nodes. A node is a specialised type of tissue that behaves as both muscle and nervous tissue. When nodal tissue contracts (like muscle tissue) it generates nerve impulses (like nervous tissue) that travel throughout the heart wall. The heart has two nodes that are instrumental in cardiac conduction, which is the electrical system that powers the cardiac cycle. These two nodes are the sinoatrial (SA) node and the atrio-ventricular (AV) node. The sinoatrial node, is also referred to as the pacemaker of the heart, it coordinates the heart contractions. It is located in the upper wall of the right atrium, it generates nerve impulses that travel throughout the heart wall causing both of the atria to contract. The atrio-ventricular node lies on the right side of the partition that divides the atria, near the bottom of the right atrium. When the impulses generated by the SA node reach the AV node, they are delayed for about a tenth of a second. This delay allows the atria to contract, thereby emptying blood into the ventricles. The AV node then sends the impulses down the atrio-ventricular bundle. This bundle of fibres branches off into two bundles and the impulses are carried down the centre of the heart to the left and right ventricles. Btec Level: 3 in Health and Social Care Nervous Tissue In the intestine In order to propel the food into the small intestine, a small electrical impulse is passed down the nerve into the lower part of the stomach to grind the food and it is expelled little by little. Then in order for digested food to pass through the intestine and the electrical impulses tract messages to the brain pass through the spinal cord to the nervous tissue within the intestines which then stimulates the muscle to contract causing the digested food to be passed down through to the rectum to the be excreted. Muscle tissue- Muscle tissue is a specialized tissue that is able to conduct electrical impulses and to contract. Muscle tissue contains the specialized proteins actin and myosin that slide past one another to allow movement. Examples of muscle tissue are contained in the muscles throughout your body. There are three types of muscles, they are known as: Striated (also called voluntary or skeletal muscle), produces movement and maintains posture, contract and relax, applies force to joints and bones, is under voluntary control. Non-striated (also called involuntary, plain or smooth), it protects, controls movement of substance along tubes, not under voluntary control, found in stomach, intestines, bladder, uterus and the eyes. The cardiac muscle (also called involuntary, has four chambers), can only be found in the heart, shares similarities to skeletal muscle, and cannot be controlled. Cardiac muscles are only found in theheart. They are self-contracting, autonomically regulated and continue to contract in rhythmic fashion for the whole life of the organism. Some of the cardiac muscle cells contract without any nervous stimulation. P2: Outline the structure of the main tissues of the body Muscle Tissue P2: Outline the structure of the main tissues of the body In the heart- The cardiac muscle has several different unique features. The muscle’s that are present in the cardiac are intercalated discs, which are connected between two adjacent cardiac cells. Intercalated discs help multiple cardiac muscle cells to contract rapidly as a unit. This is important for the heart to function properly. The cardiac muscle can also contract more powerfully when it is stretched slightly. When the ventricles are filled, they are stretched beyond their normal resting capacity. The result is a more powerful contraction, ensuring that the maximum amount of blood can be forced from the ventricles and into the arteries with each stroke. This is most noticeable during exercise, when the heart beats rapidly. This pumps blood around to all the cells in the body, to help to retrieve it and re-oxygenate it and pump it back around. In the intestine- The smooth muscle is found in the walls of hollow organs like your intestines and stomach. The muscular walls of the intestines contract to push food through your body and help to break it up, this is an involuntary function. Resources Books Stretch B.and Whitehouse M., (2014), Health & Social Care, level 3, 1st edition. Edinburgh Gate, Harlow and Essex. College notes and hand-outs Ms Mansell,, Guernsey College FE, unpublished. Websites www.en.wikipedia.org www.technion.ac.il www.kentsimmons.uwinnipeg.ca www.uoguelph.ca

Art theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Art theory - Essay Example However, in the case of The Third of May, de Goya seemed to have been inspired by the political and social status of Spain during that time, believed to have been in Spain during the six year French occupation in his country. It is also speculated that he personally witnessed the killings of his own people through a telescope after which, he visited the shooting venues and took note of the situation in a closer inventory. The metaphors presented in de Goya’s painting are seen in the dead people. If the speculations are true that he had personal inventories of the aftermath, the dead men speak for other people who have been killed. The whole picture does not only speak for one event but for all the killing events during that time whose victims are mostly commoners as the clothes in the painting show. The Spaniards on the left side, the weak side could be a metaphor in itself. In addition, their clothes which give away their social status which could be miners, farmers or other hard workers, speak of inability to save oneself when he is faced with a giant, not only in the physical sense of it but holistically as their enemies are armed with rifles and swords. In contrast, the soldiers on the right side speak of strength and being in control. Their guns and fires also speak the same language as they face the Spaniards who have no strength or means to fight back in a fair battle. The emotions that the Spaniards exude in the picture represent the fear that gripped all of those who have been represented in the picture when they were facing death in the hands of their colonizers. The folded hand of the man nearest the dead bodies is the metaphor of the Spaniards’ being religious. In this painting, their only resort is shown as the Almighty drawn from the sign language of clasping one’s hands in prayer as well as bowing in reverence to God. Looking closely at the man with

Operating Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 4

Operating Systems - Essay Example Windows 10 Unix/Linux (Linux Kernel 4.1) MacOS (El Capitan) Scalability Windows 8 has the best scalability compared to the tow other version. It supports several hardware and components (1/3) A great number of hardware does not support it and this affects its scalability. This has greatly affected its application in some operating environments (3/3) Although it is an improvement of earlier versions, its scalability still falls below Windows (2/3) Ease of Use Out of the three operating systems, Windows 10 is the easiest to use (1/3) It is Complicated and many people may find it hard to use (3/ 3) The inclusion of several new features compromises its ease of use (2/3) Reliability Although improvements have been made in this version, it cannot match the reliability of Linux and MacOS (1/3) Linux is a kernel which can run for months and years without the need to reboot (2/3) It only run in Apple computers and is therefore prone to software and hardware crashing. (3/ 3)

First National Federal Bank Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

First National Federal Bank - Case Study Example In business today, the old adage about honesty is the best policy still holds true and it is more important than ever. Problem – this case deals with an ethical issue regarding the business practices of the First National Federal Bank located in the state of Wyoming. Loan officers are now required by the bank to adhere to changes implemented after the savings and loan debacle with regard in particular to ethical business practices. This emphasis on ethics is to avoid those problems that arose due to unsavory policies and procedures concerning the approval of bank loans. In this particular case, the issue at hand is whether to let a loan applicant pay for the cost of the officers out of town trip purposely to inspect the hard collateral offered by a client for his loan. It is a standard practice in the banking industry to require collaterals in exchange for a loan. A bank requires collateral as a guarantee for repayment because a loan client would rather not be in a position of abandoning his hard-earned collateral and lose it through foreclosure if a loan turns sour (bad). There is also ambigu ity between what is legal and what is ethical (moral). Inputs - the issue that bothered Shelby Grant the most was the question of whether to let one of their potential loan clients (Mr. Doug Whitton) pay for their trip to a ranch he owns as part of the bank's due diligence process of conducting an on-site evaluation (appraisal) of the offered collateral. At this point, it may seem unethical to let a client shoulder the expenses since there is no assurance the loan would be granted. Besides the collateral, there are factors that may work against loan approval such as credit history and repayment capacity (source of income to pay back the loan). If the two loan officers, Shelby Grant and Ben Garrison, would allow or accept the clients offer to pay for their trip, it may appear a bit awkward for them.

Sexual Harassment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Sexual Harassment - Essay Example In Vinson verses Meritor Savings Bank, 477 United States 57 in 1986: the United States Supreme Court acknowledged harassment lawsuits against firms for encouraging a sexually aggressive work setting. In 2006, United States’ Head of the state then, George W. Bush endorsed a law that banned the spread of irritating messages on the Internet (also known as spamming) with no discloser of the transmitter's identity. Harassment is unwelcome behavior that is centered on religion race, sex (including pregnancy), citizen origin, color, age (41 or older), and disability. Harassment becomes illegal where 1) stomaching the offensive behavior becomes a situation of sustained employment, or 2) the behavior is severe and persistent enough to make a work setting that a sensible person would ponder intimidating, hostile, and abusive. Anti-discrimination directives also forbid harassment against persons in retribution for filing a prejudice charge, attesting, or playing a part in any manner duri ng an investigation, lawsuit, or proceeding under these directives; or opposing occupation drills that they rationally believe victimize against persons, in defilement of these laws (Walsh 76).Annoyances, petty slights, and unrepeated incidents (unless very serious) will not amount to the point of criminality. To be illegal, the conduct has to create an employment setting which would be hostile, intimidating, or unpleasant to rational people (Walsh 78). Aggressive conduct may comprise, yet not restricted to, slurs, offensive jokes, epithets and name-calling, physical attacks and threats, bullying, ridicule and mockery, invectives and put-downs, invasive objects and pictures, in addition to meddling with work execution. Harassment can transpire in a range of situations, comprising, but not restricted to, the following: The harasser could be the victim's overseer, a boss in another area, a negotiator of the proprietor, a colleague, or even a non-worker. The victim does not need to be the individual harassed, however, can be anybody affected by the unpleasant conduct. Illegal harassment may arise with no economic damage to, or acquittal of, the victim (Walsh 78). Avoidance is the effective tool to eradicate harassment within the place of work. Employers are urged to take suitable steps to avert and correct illegal harassment. They ought to communicate to workers that undesirable harassing behavior will not be stomached. They can achieve this by forming an effective grievance process, offering anti-harassment coaching to their employees and managers, and taking instant and suitable action once a worker protests. Employers should endeavor to form a setting in which workers feel open to raise trepidations and are self-assured that those apprehensions will be tackled. Employees are urged to notify the harasser openly that the demeanor is undesirable and has to stop. Employees must also convey harassment to administration at a primary stage to inhibit its escalation ( Friedman 40). The company is inevitably accountable for harassment through an overseer whose harassment ensues in an undesirable employment deed such as dissolution, failure to hire and promote, in addition to loss of salaries. If the overseer's harassment ensues in an aggressive work setting, the manager can avoid legal responsibility only

Commercial law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 5

Commercial law - Essay Example On the other hand, a Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) contract refers to an agreement of selling shipped goods at a price inclusive of the total cost of the goods, freight to the port destination and the maritime insurance coverage. One of the major essential features of CIF contracts is that it requires the vendor to ship the agreed goods in the contract, procure a bill of lading (contract of carriage), arrange for the insurance of the goods, and make a commercial invoice before finally tendering the documents to the buyer1. For example, in the case Biddle Brothers v Clemens Horst Co.2, it was ruled that the buyer was obliged to make the payments before the shipment of goods. This paper offers advice to the parties involved in the case namely, Bernadette, David and Barkers Bank with particular focus to their obligations, limitations and potential remedies in the event that a breach of the contract occurs. Based on the circumstances facing Bernadette in the presented case, the major challenge that arises is whether under the English commercial laws, Bernadette would be able to recover the money she paid for the documents from Arthur, claim the insurance policy or take legal action against the carrier in tort compensation for the damaged goods since she had already made the contract payments. Bernadette is obliged by the law to pay Mr. Arthur (the seller) even if the rice was destroyed during shipment. This can particularly be seen in the case Manbre Saccharine Co Ltd v Corn Products Co Ltd[3]Â  in which the court ruled that that the seller may still claim payment even if the goods are lost or destroyed after shipment. In my opinion, the only available remedy subject the English commercial laws is to sue Claude’s vessel Jeanne d’Arc carrier for compensation of the loss incurred due to the damage of rice during the

Pallitive care week 7 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Pallitive care week 7 - Essay Example The BSN nurses are more experienced and learned than the diploma-prepared nurses (Joishy, 1999). Physician-assisted suicide is offered to the patient by a medical health professional as a means of ending the patient’s life. Ethical issues raised include the quality of life, autonomy, and acting on the best interests of the patient. The patient has the right to refuse medical treatment even when the nurse or the physician believes that the treatment is for the best interest of the patient. In such a situation, withholding the treatment of the patient as requested is not assisting the patient to die but rather a show of free-will and dignity towards the patient. The main challenge is the definition of what the patient’s best interests are and the identification of who should be allowed to determine the best interests, and if they can be met by administering a certain treatment or withdrawing it (American Society of Registered Nurses, 2010). American Society of Registered Nurses. (2010). Dilemma for nurses: Physician-assisted suicide. Retrieved from

Nursing practice and health care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Nursing practice and health care - Essay Example Hospitals stays are becoming shorter with the average patient staying 6.1 days in the late 1990s for acute admittance, as compared to 11.3 days in the early 1970s (Department of Health, 2003a). The practices for the most ideal outcomes which enhance independent living are constantly evaluated as to their appropriateness to modern day living. The issue of discharge and its effects on patients is critical to discuss as most patients want to return to life as it was previous to their admission. Also, it is the post-modern aim of the NHS that service delivery focus on acute care which is unable to be provided efficiently by other health care service organizations. This paper will review the positive and negative impacts of hospital discharge on patients, their relatives, carers and health professionals. Secondly, local practices as experienced at placement at the Lewisham Hospital will be detailed. And the alignment of local practices with National Strategies will be identified. Finally, a conclusion shall synthesise the main points of the paper and demonstrate that decreasing in-hospital stays can have a positive effect on patients. The adult patient has many developmental tasks to meet, whatever their lifespan stage; young adult, middle adult or older adult. The health of the adult client occurs along a health-illness continuum. Many factors will affect adult health; genetic makeup, cognitive abilities and education level; ethnicity and cultural background; age, gender and developmental stage; lifestyle and environment; socio-economic background; geographic area; and their health promotion and maintenance (Brooker & Nichols, 2003; Hinchcliff, 2003). Obvious benefits to patients of shorter hospital stays include their savings as consumers of health care treatments and care, and that shorter stays are much preferred by patients in general. Clearly public and private savings on health care costs will occur due to shorter stays. Social costs for conditions such as Alzheimer's can be 4 times as expensive in nursing homes as compared to home care service provision (Henderson, 2002). With informal care, as experience d with family or carers, the monthly costs per patient in 1996 were almost $1, 549. In contrast, the more formal or professional setting of a nursing home incurred costs of approximately $3, 130. Also the formal costs in community settings averaged $ 683 as most of community costs are informal, being met by relatives and caregivers. So that 98% of formal costs were actually billed and payable. Figures were established by multiplying the hours of care by the hourly wage rate for home health aids and personal care attendants.A Swedish study, as reported in Henderson (2002), made comparisons between costs per patient per day for elderly patients according to 1995 values and exchange rates, across different health delivery settings (hospital, nursing home and in-home care). The costs ranged from 627 for hospitalization to 164 in nursing homes, to 0 within their own home with a carer or relative. The results of the Swedish study are echoed by the National Services Framework (DH, 2001a). It is important that the patient's need are met, that they be provided support to maximize their independence, and

Free

Free philosophy Essay In philosophy, the â€Å"self† is used to refer to the ultimate locus of personal identity, the agent and the knower involved in each person’s actions and cognitions. The notion of the self has traditionally raised several philosophical questions. First, there are questions about the nature and very existence of the self. Is the self a material or immaterial thing? Is the self even a real thing or rather a merely nominal object? Second, is the self the object of a peculiar form of introspective knowledge, and if so, what does this tell about its ultimate nature? Third, what is the relation between the nature of the self and the linguistic phenomena of self-reference, such as the use of the first-person pronoun ‘I’? In this course, we will investigate these and related questions with a special focus on the issue of the unity of the self. In the first half of the course, particular attention will be devoted to recent works on the relation between the nature of the self, the unity of agency and the process of self-constitution by authors such as Korsgaard, Velleman, Dennett In the second half of the course, we will discuss some of the peculiar features of self-knowledge and consider whether the idea of self-constitution can shed light on them. The self does not really exist as something truly real because: it is not available to introspection (Hume); it is not a thing (Existentialists); it is a soluble fish in a sea of general meanings or representations (postmodernists); and/or it cannot be found in the brain or its activity (neurophilosophers). There are many other lines of attack but these examples are sufficient to illustrate what is wrong with these autocides: they are looking for the wrong kind of entity or in the wrong place or both.

Sutherland Global Services Is A Financial Corporation Marketing Essay

Sutherland Global Services Is A Financial Corporation Marketing Essay For any business excellent customer service is the income. Bringing back the customers is the best customer service. And in relation send them away pleased happy enough to pass encouraging criticism about the business alongside others, who may perhaps then attempt the merchandise or service you recommend for them and in turn into repeat clients. You can offer advancement and cut prices to bring in as many fresh customers as you want, but unless you can search out some of those customers to come back, there will no profit for a long time in your business. If the firm truly wish for having good customer service, all you have to do is make sure that your business constantly does these things: Respond to the customers phone call. Dont give the customer promises unless you will fulfil the promise. Listen to your customers patiently while they are talking and make appropriate responses to show the customers that we are listening. After listening to the customers issue, we have an idea how to deal with complaints. Be helpful towards the customers even if there are no instant financial gains in it. If you have any staff, give training to be always supportive or helpful, knowledgeable, and chivalrous. By taking the extra steps does not mean that you have to tell the customer to search for it, you have to guide them to the right path and wait if they have any queries. Throw in some additional information about the product that the customer buys. Following these eight steps, ones business will be known for their good and excellent customer service. The irony of the excellent customer service is that this will increase the number of new customers is the best part. (Ward 2010) For dealing with the customer service, I have opted Sutherland Global Services for doing the research, as the firm is widely known and personally I was a member of the customer service team in this BPO firm. SUTHERLAND GLOBAL SERVICES Sutherland Global Services is a financial corporation headquartered in Rochester, New York. There are 22,000 employees employed in this business process outsourcing firm and operations in seven countries including India, the Philippines, Canada, Mexico and Bulgaria. Sutherland cherishes their customers or clients as their business companions. They are enthusiastic and keen to provide the highest quality service to the customers and will treat their target and objectives as companys own. The firm will boost their aggressive benefit by constantly higher than the expectations. Sutherland Industries: Globalization, expertise promotion, lesser telecommunications expenses, and the adulthood of outsourcing facility providers are motivating companies to influence business process outsourcing (BPO) as a tactical move towards the enhancement of efficiency and taken as a whole functional efficiency. Industries that serve a large number of customers are the most important beneficiaries of a BPO. Because of the physical scenery of the business processes that are mandatory to attain, sustain and retain their customers, companies in these industries are outsourcing a variety of customer-facing and back-office operation. For more than two decades, Sutherland Global Services has built and managed outsourced operations for 1000 companies crossways numerous industries. Over the course of 20 years of experience, Sutherland has urbanized a demonstrated method for supervising outsourced operations that is applied to BPO whereabouts athwart any industry. By sternly clinging to this evolution on each commitment, the company is able to trim down start-up and changeover endangers, accomplish beleaguered objectives more rapidly, and run a more reliable steady-state operation on the clients behalf. Sutherland offers specialized BPO services for the following industries: (i) Retail/e-Retail (ii) Insurance (iii) Mortgage (iv) Banking/Financial services (v) Healthcare (vi) Telecommunication (vii) Technology (viii) Energy/Utilities and (ix) Travel and hospitality. Retail/e-Retail: Retailers function in a globe of tremendous market volatility, cost pressure and supply-chain intricacy. Sutherland supplies incorporated customer-facing and significant back-office support services to a high-speed increasing roll of key leaders in the vend space. Sutherlands services are geared in the direction of conventional trade, online/e-commerce and direct to customer oriented companies looking for an incorporated resolution. For each client or customer, the firm designed a personalized explanation built just about their explicit needs together with safety, skill and equipment, procedure, quality and exposure. Leveraging the firms field knows how, expertise, processes, and infrastructure, Sutherland helps worldwide retail firms concentrate on end-to-end dare. Insurance: Sutherland furnishes public and private Insurance companies an end- to-end scheme to perk up their functioning efficiencies and enables them to vie more capably which in turn facilitate them to innovate and generate a eternal aggressive benefit. In particular, Sutherland delivers: cost lessening and a changeable cost replica income increases through various allocation channels go around time upgrading for field force and members/consumers the aptitude to bring a steady customer skill Mortgage: Mortgage originators must productively deal with outlay in the phizog of altering technological, operational, and personnel demands. Sutherlands Mortgage Origination services drastically lesser the risks and expenses linked with a multiplicity of business processes rise above the entire instigation sequence. Sutherland can considerably improve a lenders output, customer satisfaction, and income generating occasion. Banking/Financial services: Financial or Banking services companies in each section are beneath strong stress to stay on beneficial. Customer expectations keep on increasing as business leaders features expenditure challenges. Sutherland Global Services suggests a BPO model for contact centre and back-office processes. Delivery options comprise North American aground, work at home, offshore service delivery via the facilities in the Bulgaria, Canada, India, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, United Kingdom and United States. Healthcare: Generally in customer-focused industries, Health Insurance companies are appraising tactical sourcing alternatives that will consent to them to improved control costs, diminish resource expenditures and get better level of overhaul they deliver to their customers. One way, Health Insurance companies can achieve these objectives is to deem choosy Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) for definite sales, customer service, claims organizational and back-office processing functions. Technology: Sutherland has about two decades of experience with building and controlling sales, advertising and customer support operations for the technology industry. Sutherland Global is branded and recognized in the industry for knowledge, realm skill and track-record of grades working with some of the most flourishing names in the hi-tech industry. Energy/Utilities: Travel and Hospitality: Sutherland understands that travel and hospitality companies functions multifaceted organizations with many global business units overseeing separate PL responsibilities. As business and individual journey experience stable quantity increases, every company faces passionate rivalry to supply astonishing customer service while controlling outlay. Companies must swiftly take action to varying consumer demands, which requires litheness and flexibility in operations, customer relationship management and back office processes. Telecommunication: It habitually seems hard to locate a business with the aim of more competitive than telecommunications. Service providers are quickly escalating an innovative service skill and insistently entering fresh markets, blurring the lines connecting voice, data, cable, IP and wireless. Exceptional cost and rigid pressure is making it trickier for providers to nurture market share and deal with a healthy profit image. For numerous telecommunications service providers, outsourcing definite client contact centre and back-office procedure is a reasonable and significant way to stay competitive and nurture their industry. That is why the top telecommunications companies have trusted on Sutherland for more than a decade to experience a variety of aspects of their customer lifecycle management errands. Sutherlands has formed for the following types of service providers for outsourcing services for the telecommunications industry. Those are as follows: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Traditional wire line à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Wireless/mobile à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Cable à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Satellite à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Data network operators à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Internet online service providers (Sutherland Global Services 2009) Research Questions Why Sutherland Global succeeds? How others make benefit? How does Sutherland Global make impact on various sectors? Research Objectives It is very essential for a company to make a good relationship with the customer and the company. This should be the main motto of the company to make a customer happy after getting solved all the issues of the customer. The important factor to set up nonstop or long term achievement is by giving importance to the customers. The main advantage of the company is to deliver quality services to customers and will certainly increase the selling opportunities for a happy customer. By this the company will grow autonomously. Some companies only focus getting new customers and ignore the value of the old customers. They forget that these old customers has helped them the chance to grow. They knew that getting new clients instead of the old ones will be more profitable. But they forget that generating new clients will be more expensive than they are already in the asset. (Customer Service BPO 2008) Customer service always helps to make an industry more profitable. By keeping the old customers and gaining new ones, brilliant customer service is crucial to any business replica. Human resources professionals must be able to give explanation for the importance of customer service teaching and extract from organization broad support for a complete programme. (Reheer 1999) Research Philosophies: The researcher establishes assumption, examines and analyzes the active facts and synthesizes the substantiation into a feasible hypothetical sculpt. Nuisance dealing with objectives, syllabus, course content, desires and style are but a small number of the vital issues that can be determined only through the theoretical or philosophical mode of crisis solving. Even though a few authors give emphasis to the distinction among science and philosophy, the philosophic process of study follows fundamentally the similar steps as other methods of technical means of solving. The philosophic approach uses systematic facts as the foundation for formulating and test to do research suggestion. (Jerry R. Thomas 2005) Literature Review: Why chosen BPO for Research Method? Business process outsourcing or else recognized as BPO is the procedure of leveraging skill vendors in a variety of third worlds or developing countries for doing a career which was on one occasion the dependability of the venture. Or in simple thoughts, it is the method of shifting an internal occupation practice to an outside or external corporation which might have an entirely dissimilar ecological locality. The reassigning of internal business processes, for instance, customer relationship organization, investment secretarial, human resources and acquisition , to an external service source that improves these processes and administers these functions to an approved service criterion and, classically, at a abridged expenditure. In general, the processes being outsourcing as division of BPO are backend works like call centres, medical transcription, billing, payroll processing, and data entry and so on. Most of these jobs are outsourced by first world nations like USA and UK to third world nations like India, Philippines, China, Malaysia and some eastern European countries. These nations have a good number of English speaking youth who are given accent and job related training before they are inducted at a salary which is much lesser than what their counterparts in first world nations would require. This allows first world organizations to get advanced profits and offer improved services by lowering the prices and by recruiting more work than they could possibly do. In addition to promoting the first world nations economic standard, business process outsourcing has also benefited third world nations by generating much needed jobs. In the early days, BPO typically consisted of outsourcing processes such as payroll. Then it grew to take in employee reimbursement management. Now it includes a number of functions that are measured non-core to the primary business strategy. Now it is common for organizations to outsource fiscal and management processes, human resources functions, accounting and payroll and call centre and customer service performance. These outsourcing deals commonly engross multi-year contracts that can run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Frequently, the people performing the work within for the client firm are transferred and have converted into employees for the service provider. Leading outsourcing service providers in the BPO fields include US companies are Sutherland Global Services, IBM, Accenture, and Hewitt Associates, as well as European and Asian companies Capgemini, Genpact, TCS, Wipro, Infosys and many more and some of which also dominate the IT outsourcing business. (Ritu Thapar . 2010) PROBLEMS OF RESEARCH METHOD: ETHICS Business ethics is fairly ancient as a subject of personage and social apprehension, but it is comparatively newly fangled as an area of social logical analysis. The late 20th century was a deafening instance for business ethics. (Trevià ±o and Weaver 2003) Limitations of doing research: No access to information: As doing the research, there was any access to information while browsing because of the company policy. The firm will only give access to their company policy only if t helps their employees, agents and trusted third party service providers. (Privacy Policy, 2010) Lack of knowledge: It could be difficult completing the coursework with no knowledge about the sector or subject you have chosen. Resistance in companies and people for sharing knowledge

The Religious Right and the Crusade to Preserve Religion :: Essays Papers

The Religious Right and the Crusade to Preserve Religion This paper was written for my Writing 209 class. For the assignment ,Donna Marsh, asked us to find an article in a periodical that dealt with an issue in our American culture. We were then told to express our opinion on the topic discussed in the article and to analyze the argument presented in the article. I chose the topic of school prayer because I believe strongly in the separation of church and state that exists in our country. This is a controversial issue that is worthy of discussion, and hopefully my essay will provoke you in some manner whether you agree with my premise or feel that the views I express are totally invalid. In the presidential election of 1992 between George Bush and Bill Clinton, the topic of family values became one of the most controversial issues of the campaign. Vice President Dan Quayle emphasized this issue the most, with his frequent tirades on the subject including his criticism of the television character Murphy Brown. Once this issue reached the spotlight, the more conservative members of the Republican party religious right" delivered speeches calling for the nation to return to instilling "traditional values" in our children. One of the reforms that they called for was the legalization of a daily prayer in our public school system. They claimed that this would be a key first step in reinstituting the essential family values in our children. They called for a change in our laws which have forbidden prayer in schools. These laws have been upheld because courts have asserted that they violate the separation of church and state that is assured in our Constitution. Following this call for a new religious crusade many articles and editorials appeared calling for new legislation which would allow prayer in public schools. Polls were released which indicated that a large percentage of Americans favored new legislation on this subject, and more than one half of those surveyed claimed that they would be more likely to vote for a candidate in a national election who supported prayer in public schools. One has to question the intensity of this support because Bill Clinton (not a supporter of bringing religion into public schools) defeated George Bush (a supporter of school prayer) in the 1992 presidential election. Those who voiced their support for school prayer felt that it would strengthen the moral values of young children as they went through school. The Religious Right and the Crusade to Preserve Religion :: Essays Papers The Religious Right and the Crusade to Preserve Religion This paper was written for my Writing 209 class. For the assignment ,Donna Marsh, asked us to find an article in a periodical that dealt with an issue in our American culture. We were then told to express our opinion on the topic discussed in the article and to analyze the argument presented in the article. I chose the topic of school prayer because I believe strongly in the separation of church and state that exists in our country. This is a controversial issue that is worthy of discussion, and hopefully my essay will provoke you in some manner whether you agree with my premise or feel that the views I express are totally invalid. In the presidential election of 1992 between George Bush and Bill Clinton, the topic of family values became one of the most controversial issues of the campaign. Vice President Dan Quayle emphasized this issue the most, with his frequent tirades on the subject including his criticism of the television character Murphy Brown. Once this issue reached the spotlight, the more conservative members of the Republican party religious right" delivered speeches calling for the nation to return to instilling "traditional values" in our children. One of the reforms that they called for was the legalization of a daily prayer in our public school system. They claimed that this would be a key first step in reinstituting the essential family values in our children. They called for a change in our laws which have forbidden prayer in schools. These laws have been upheld because courts have asserted that they violate the separation of church and state that is assured in our Constitution. Following this call for a new religious crusade many articles and editorials appeared calling for new legislation which would allow prayer in public schools. Polls were released which indicated that a large percentage of Americans favored new legislation on this subject, and more than one half of those surveyed claimed that they would be more likely to vote for a candidate in a national election who supported prayer in public schools. One has to question the intensity of this support because Bill Clinton (not a supporter of bringing religion into public schools) defeated George Bush (a supporter of school prayer) in the 1992 presidential election. Those who voiced their support for school prayer felt that it would strengthen the moral values of young children as they went through school.

Tim berners lee :: essays research papers

Tim Berners-Lee graduated from the Queen's College at Oxford University, England, 1976. Whilst there he built his first computer with a soldering iron, TTL gates, an M6800 processor and an old television. He spent two years with Plessey Telecommunications Ltd   (Poole, Dorset, UK) a major UK Telecom equipment manufacturer, working on distributed transaction systems, message relays, and bar code technology. In 1978 Tim left Plessey to join D.G Nash Ltd (Ferndown, Dorset, UK), where he wrote among other things typesetting software for intelligent printers, and a multitasking operating system. A year and a half spent as an independent consultant included a six month stint (Jun-Dec 1980)as consultant software engineer at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. Whilst there, he wrote for his own private use his first program for storing information including using random associations. Named "Enquire", and never published, this program formed the conceptual basis for the future development of the World Wide Web. From 1981 until 1984, Tim worked at John Poole's Image Computer Systems Ltd, with technical design responsibility. Work here included real time control firmware, graphics and communications software, and a generic macro language. In 1984, he took up a fellowship at CERN, to work on distributed real-time systems for scientific data acquisition and system control. Among other things, he worked on FASTBUS system software and designed a heterogeneous remote procedure call system. In 1989, he proposed a global hypertext project, to be known as the World Wide Web. Based on the earlier "Enquire" work, it was designed to allow people to work together by combining their knowledge in a web of hypertext documents. He wrote the first World Wide Web server, "httpd", and the first client, "WorldWideWeb" a what-you-see-is-what-you-get hypertext browser/editor which ran in the NeXTStep environment. This work was started in October 1990, and the program "WorldWideWeb" first made available within CERN in December, and on the Internet at large in the summer of 1991. Through 1991 and 1993, Tim continued working on the design of the Web, coordinating feedback from users across the Internet. His initial specifications of URIs, HTTP and HTML were refined and discussed in larger circles as the Web technology spread. In 1994, Tim founded the World Wide Web Consortium at the Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Since that time he has served as the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium which coordinates Web development worldwide, with teams at MIT, at INRIA in France, and at Keio University in Japan.

Drug, Crime, Prohibition Essay -- essays research papers

Drugs, Crime and Prohibition Do drugs really cause crime, or is it our governments way of controlling the communities? Many people blame drugs for every problem in our society, but is it the true evil in our society? No one person can answer that question. There are only opinions and supposed theories on this issue. We have been taught over the years that drugs were bad and that they only affected the poor and less fortunate, and turned them into crazy criminals, but this isn’t true to any extent. The laws controlling and prohibiting drugs are the true reasons. Would our crime levels decline if drugs were legalized to some extent, or would we just increase the destruction of our country? Over the past fifty years, prohibition has been proven to actually increase crime and drug use instead of its intended purpose, which was to extinguish the use of illicit drugs in the United States. We constantly here of prison over crowding, and why is that? Most of our prisons are filled with drug offenders, ranging fro m use to distribution of supposed illicit drugs. What is our country coming to? The purpose of this research paper is to view the advantages and disadvantages of the legalization of illicit drugs in the United States. I will examine each side of this major problem plaguing our fine country from past to present. People wake everyday to their normal and monotonous life without even thinking about what they are doing. They do not realize that they have been conditioned by the government and its laws to obey and follow the supposed norm of society. What is the norms of society, and who set the guidelines for them? No one can explain how these norms came about, they only know that they must follow them, or they could get in trouble with the law. We are going into the twenty first century, and we still follow laws that were passed hundreds of years ago. Why is this? We are a highly advanced country, but we spend time, lives and money on abiding by laws that were around before the automobi le was even invented. I will begin with the history of our drug control policies, which have failed miserably, and examine the drug-crime connection. Policy History Drugs have been in this country since the beginning of time in some shape or form, which was used for personal and medicinal use. Usage of marijuana has been reported to date back to the founding of Jamestown (1). Ge... ...ugh a drug epidemic. Drug related murders and violent assaults are on the rise, but this isn’t caused by drugs, rather by the laws that prohibit them. By prohibiting drugs, we are only causing the prices of drug to rise, which means addicts must cause crimes to support their habit. The illicit drug trade market is the second largest business in the world, bringing in over 500 billion dollars a year. Opposers of legalization argue that tobacco and alcohol kill more because of its legality and availability(3 ). The solution in their eyes is in education and early prevention. Drug use among America’s children in on the rise, and education is a perfect logical way of lowering their usage. Children need to be taught the effects and dangers of drugs when they are young. Children are the future drug abusers if something isn’t done. Violence and drugs are thought to be one in the same in most peoples eyes, but is this true. Drugs do not turn people into monsters, but rather bring out their criminal tendencies. No one argues that legalization would end violence that is associated with drugs, but it would simply end the violence associated with the black market. Many dealers become dealers

Online Games Is Formative Way of Learning

Supporting early learning and development through formative assessment A research paper Supporting early learning and development through formative assessment A research paper Elizabeth Dunphy, EdD Commissioned by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA  © NCCA 2008 24 Merrion Square, Dublin 2 www. ncca. ie Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Contents Glossary 5 Introduction 6 Section 1: General background Purpose of the paper Assessment and curriculum The Irish context The practice context The legislative context Ethical IssuesTowards a definition of formative assessment Supporting learning and development 8 8 8 9 9 10 11 12 12 Section 2: The nature of early learning Characteristics of early learning The complexity of early learning Key theoretical constructs for assessment Ecological perspectives Socio-cultural perspectives Activity theory Children’s agency Children’s collaboration in learning Intersubjectivity and collaboration Childr en as co-constructors of knowledge Play as a context for formative assessment Emerging approaches to assessment Performance assessment and authentic assessment Summary 13 13 13 3 14 14 14 15 15 17 17 18 18 19 21 Section 3: What to assess in early learning The essentials of learning Dispositions A range of cognitive abilities Emotional well-being Self-concept and sociability Summary 22 22 22 23 23 24 24 Section 4: How to assess early learning A narrative approach to assessment of learning in early childhood Learning stories: A credit-focused approach A fully-contextualised account of learning Methods for collecting information on children’s learning Observing and empathising Conversations with children Clinical interviews Making sense of children’s learningSustaining learning and development through documentation Portfolios Summary 25 25 25 26 27 28 29 29 30 30 31 33 3 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Section 5: Assessment and the practitioner Professio nal knowledge Skills base Ethical considerations Manageability of assessment Tensions 34 34 34 35 35 36 Concluding comments 37 References 38 Table 1: Gardner’s understanding of human development and assessment and Shepard’s guiding principles of assessment 19 4 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Glossary Glossary Agency: Children are active in their own learning.Some ways in which they display their agency is by taking the initiative in learning situations, by observing and becoming involved in ongoing events, or by initiating conversations with others. Authentic assessment: Assessing children on tasks that are part of their ordinary everyday experiences in their early education and care settings. Co-construction: This occurs when children and/or practitioners construct meaning and knowledge about the world together in interaction. Collaborative learning: This is learning that takes place in social contexts and using the resources of the environment.Form ative assessment: This is assessment that informs teaching and learning. It is concerned with the shortterm collection and use of evidence for the guidance of learning. Intersubjectivity: This is the mutual understanding achieved by people in communication. Meta-cognition: This refers to what children think about their own learning, thinking and remembering and how the act of thinking about these processes affect the ways in which children then go about intentionally learning, thinking and remembering. It is a process whereby children become aware of their own thought processes.Pedagogy of mutuality: This perspective recognises that both child and adult bring beliefs and ideas to the learning situation and that discussion and interaction are the means by which a shared frame of reference is established. This results in an exchange of understandings between the child and the practitioner. Pedagogical content knowledge: This is a form of professional understanding which brings togethe r content knowledge and knowledge about pedagogy. It is based on an understanding of how best to organise and present ideas and adapt them in response to the diverse interests and abilities of children.Performance assessment: Assessing children’s early learning and development through observing, recording, and evaluating children’s performance or work. Scaffolding: This refers to the practice of providing guidance and support to children as they move from one level of competence to another. It is a metaphor that is used to describe interactional support for children’s efforts. The assistance offered to the child is sensitive to and contingent on the amount of support needed. Schema: These are patterns of early repeatable behaviours which children engage in and which lead them through a process of co-ordination, to make generalisations.Socio-cultural theories: These are a family of theories that have arisen from the work of Vygotsky and which have in common their emphasis on the role that social and cultural factors play in children’s development and learning. Theory of mind: Children gradually acquire the understanding that other people can hold beliefs about the world that differ from what the child him/herself believes or appears to be true. Transformation of participation: From a socio-cultural perspective, children are seen as developing through a process of participating in activities of their communities, and in doing so their participation changes.They become progressively more expert through engagement in cultural practice and through social interactions that guide them in taking on new roles and responsibilities. 5 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Supporting early learning and development through formative assessment Introduction This research paper, Supporting early learning and development through formative assessment responds to the questions – What’s the purpose of formative assessment in early childhood? What should we assess? How should we assess?The paper is one of four research papers commissioned by the NCCA to set out the theory trail behind the Framework for Early Learning1. This paper is being used to develop guidelines on assessment for inclusion in the Framework. While there are a number of different types and functions of assessment this paper focuses on formative assessment as this offers most potential in terms of assessing to support learning in the day-to-day interactions between adults and children in early childhood. Section 1 of the paper, General background explores the meaning of assessment and its relationship with teaching and learning.Though still very much an emerging area, what we know about how to support early learning and development through the formative assessment process has advanced somewhat in recent years. In many ways the advances in assessment practices in early childhood education and care mirror those in the field of assessment g enerally. In particular, the articulation of the interrelatedness between teaching, learning and assessment and the complexity of the relationships between these processes and curriculum is of as much importance to those concerned with early learning and development, as it is to those concerned with later stages of development.The term assessment, as applied in early childhood education and care, generally implies the intention to provide a rich picture of the ways in which children act, think and learn. In order to orient the discussion about assessment in early childhood education and care, the initial section of the paper outlines the general context in relation to the assessment of early learning and development. While a number of different reasons for assessing early learning and development can be identified, this paper focuses on using formative assessment to support teaching and learning.Section 2, The nature of early learning begins from the premise that in assessing early learning and development it is critical to acknowledge and take account of the nature of early learning and development. We know that in early childhood learning and development is rapid, episodic and holistic. It is also highly influenced by the extent of support that is available for that learning. The adults around the child, and the extent to which they can and do support early learning and development, are crucial elements in determining the extent of learning.Because of their stage of development, children’s abilities in some areas are not yet mature. Their verbal abilities are still emerging, and so assessment of learning and development is often through observation of, and inference from, the children’s actions and reactions in particular situations. It is also essential to acknowledge and take account of the fact that there are considerable cultural variations in children’s experiences. These will result in differences in the course and content of early learning and development. They may also result in considerable differences in how children learn and in how they display their learning.It is important to focus on the breadth of children’s early learning and development. Section 3, What to assess in early learning focuses on assessing children’s dispositions, well-being, cognitive abilities and self-concept and sociability. Assessment in early childhood is shaped by how children from birth to six years learn and develop. A narrative approach offers great potential for making assessment of early learning visible. Documentation of evidence of early learning and development in various ways, using a variety of media and tools, is important for both reflecting on and communicating about children’s achievements.There appears to be general agreement that assessment of early learning and development should be informal, carried out over time, and in the context of the child’s interactions with materials, objects and other people. It should also be authentic in the sense that it should take place in real-life contexts where it is embedded in tasks that children see as significant, meaningful and worthwhile. Informal assessments, carried out as children engage in experiences they see as relevant and meaningful, are likely to produce the best assessments of early learning and development.These issues are considered in Section 4, How to assess early learning. 1 The Framework for Early Learning was renamed Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework in 2009. 6 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Supporting early learning and development through formative assessment Section 5, Assessment and the practitioner discusses the need for professional development for early childhood practitioners. Good assessment practice requires understanding about how children learn and develop, the process of assessment, and skills to manageably assess in ways that respect children and that are e thically sound.The concluding comments clarify and summarise the key messages across the paper. Key points arising from the discussion are presented in shaded boxes throughout the paper. Some of these points relate to key messages arising from theory and research while others are aspirational. 7 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Supporting early learning and development through formative assessment Section 1: General background This section of the paper explores what is meant by assessment in early childhood and discusses its relationship with teaching and learning.Informed by this, a definition of formative assessment is presented. The section concludes by describing the current practice and legislative context in which assessment takes place in Ireland. Purpose of the paper The purpose of this paper is to review issues related to formative assessment of early learning. The findings of the paper will be used to support the development of the assessment guidelines in the Framework for Early Learning2. The paper responds to questions related to the what, why and how of formative assessment in early childhood. Assessment and curriculumWays of assessing children’s learning and development cannot be separated from features of the curriculum (for example, the degree of formality or informality that characterises it), and from views of learners and learning which are embodied in that curriculum. Kelly (1992) identifies the interrelating of curriculum and assessment as †¦ a highly complex and sophisticated matter (p. 16). He argues that the interplay of one with the other is crucial in determining the effectiveness of either. The NCCA is developing a curriculum framework for children between the ages of birth and six years.The Framework embraces a particular view of the child, of learning and of how that learning may be celebrated and extended. In the Framework for Early Learning, learning is presented in four broad and complementary theme s:  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Well-being  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Identity and Belonging  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Communicating  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Exploring and Thinking. Some of the principles related to how children develop and learn which underpin the Framework include the following:  ¦Ã‚ ¦ holistic learning and development  ¦Ã‚ ¦ active learning  ¦Ã‚ ¦ play and first-hand experiences  ¦Ã‚ ¦ relevant and meaningful experiences  ¦Ã‚ ¦ communication and language  ¦ a well-planned and well-resourced outdoor and indoor learning environment. It will be important to identify an approach to assessment that will help practitioners identify and support children’s learning as it relates to the Framework’s principles and themes. Assessment and teaching are now generally considered to be as much inseparable processes in early childhood as they are in any other period of life (Shepard, Kagan and Wurtz, 1998; Bowman et al. , 2001). We now know that children learn by building new understandings on those that they already have ( Wood, 1998).In order to support children’s learning then, practitioners first collect information about children’s well-being, identity and belonging, communication, and exploration and thinking. What children engage with, think, know, feel or can do are all of importance in the assessment process. Reflection on this information helps the practitioner to establish 2 As noted earlier, the Framework for Early Learning was renamed Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework in 2009. 8 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Supporting early learning and development through formative assessment ow best to advance children’s learning and development. Once this is established the practitioner is then in a position to plan worthwhile, interesting and challenging learning experiences to further progress learning. Clearly then, assessment in early childhood is not something that can be considered independent of either curriculum or learning. It is critica l that the assessment of early learning recognises the unique nature of development in early childhood. It is also critical that we learn from the experiences of countries with a longer history of appraising assessment practices and processes than we have here in Ireland.Working in the context of the United States, where there has been considerable interest in finding appropriate assessment formats for use by early childhood practitioners, Shepard et al. (1998, pp. 8-9) devised a set of principles to guide practice and policy for the assessment of children’s learning. These represented a synthesis of understandings in respect of the most appropriate approaches to assessment in early childhood and the authors advised that they should apply to any situation in which assessments are used to make decisions about children’s learning:  ¦Ã‚ ¦Assessments should bring about benefits for children.  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Assessments should be tailored to a specific purpose and should be reli able, valid and fair for that purpose.  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Assessment policies should be designed recognising that reliability and validity of assessments increases with children’s age.  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Assessments should be age-appropriate in both content and the method of data collection.  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Assessments should be linguistically appropriate, recognising that to some extent all assessments are measures of language.  ¦Ã‚ ¦Parents should be a valued source of assessment information, as well as an audience for assessment results. The Irish context The practice context Assessment in the early years of a child’s life can be viewed from a number of perspectives. David (2003) identifies three perspectives  ¦Ã‚ ¦ the day-to-day informal assessments made by the adults with whom the child comes in contact. In most cases these are early years practitioners who may or may not document such assessments.  ¦Ã‚ ¦ the physical assessments by paediatricians, public health nurses and family doc tors.These aim to identify any physical problems that may impede children’s progression and seek to alleviate them as much as possible.  ¦Ã‚ ¦ diagnostic assessments that can have a range of functions, including identifying children with special educational needs, and helping practitioners to support their learning more effectively. No single type of assessment can serve all of the purposes identified in the perspectives outlined above. Each perspective has a role to play, especially in the case of children with special needs where diagnostic assessments are of paramount importance.Babies, toddlers and young children may experience various types of assessments in early childhood. Some may occur frequently, others occasionally. Multi-agency and multi-disciplinary communication is a critical means by which information related to the child’s development and learning can be shared for the benefit of the child. It is imperative that practitioners in early childhood settin gs have access to any information that is of use in making sure learning opportunities in the setting are appropriate for each individual child.The practice of practitioners building on assessments carried out by other professionals such as therapists can be facilitated by significant levels of inter- and/or multidisciplinary teamwork. 9 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Supporting early learning and development through formative assessment Where children spend some or all of their day in out-of-home settings the practitioners with whom they are in contact engage in ongoing assessment for supporting learning and development.Traditionally, observation is the primary method used in assessing children’s learning and development in the range of early education settings in Ireland. For instance, close observations of children’s play in a range of childcare services in Ireland provide the basis for learning and teaching stories (Brennan, 2004). Many practitio ners use checklists to record aspects of their observations. These are often used to record observations in relation to the assessment of children’s skills and understandings, particularly in the area of identifying children with special educational needs and in supporting their learning and development.In relation to their use of assessment practices to support children’s learning in curriculum areas, only about half of infant teachers who participated in Phase 1 of the Primary Curriculum Review (NCCA, 2005) reported that they used observation and about three-quarters reported using documentation. Infant teachers in primary schools also use a range of developmental and diagnostic assessments, for example, in the area of early literacy, to assess specific aspects of children’s development and learning. (See Section 4 for a more extensive discussion on observation as an assessment method. )Increasingly there is an awareness that children live different childhoods : their social, cultural, linguistic and ecological experiences and opportunities differ and all of this influences assessment. Practitioners who are in daily contact with children are in a good position to familiarise themselves with these diverse aspects of children’s lives and of their possibilities for early learning and development. Consequently, on a day-to-day basis, the practitioner’s own assessments are the ones that have the most potential in terms of planning for children’s learning and of making judgements regarding children’s progress.Using assessment for this purpose is the central focus of this paper. Key point A range of assessments are appropriate in assessing children’s learning. The focus of the assessment depends on its purpose. The central focus of this paper is on formative assessment where practitioners’ own assessments are used to support and plan for children’s learning. The legislative context There is a long history of informal assessment of children’s learning in Ireland. However, for various reasons early childhood practitioners now find it necessary to document learning in ways that were not general practice previously.Both legislative requirements and practitioners’ own desires to better understand early learning and how best to extend it, are to the fore in encouraging the documentation of information related to children’s early learning and development. In relation to young children attending primary schools, The Education Act (Department of Education and Science, 1998) requires principals and teachers to regularly evaluate students and periodically report the results of the evaluation to the students and their parents. The implications of this requirement for teachers and schools include  ¦ developing assessment procedures which provide an accurate account of children’s progress and achievement  ¦Ã‚ ¦ creating and maintaining records of childrenâ €™s progress and achievement while they are attending the school  ¦Ã‚ ¦ providing parents with assessment reports which contain accurate and clearly accessible information about their children’s progress and achievement (NCCA, 2007a, p. 95). The Equal Status Act (The Equality Authority, 2000) has implications for the assessment policy in early education settings.In particular, it requires settings to be aware of the effects of context, culture and language in assessing children’s learning and development. 10 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Supporting early learning and development through formative assessment The Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act (EPSEN) (Department of Health and Children, 2004) requires that where a child has or may have special educational needs an assessment of those needs should be carried out. With children not attending formal schooling this is the responsibility of the relevant health board.Where th e child is a student then the Act requires schools to identify when a child is not benefiting from the education programme on offer and to investigate the reasons behind this. The school, or in the case of a child not at school the relevant health board, is mandated to ensure that an individual education plan (IEP) for an appropriate education for the child is drawn up in consultation with the child’s parents. The Act outlines the statutory requirements for educational planning for children with special educational needs (SEN).It requires that a multi-disciplinary assessment be carried out in situations where it is considered that the child may have special educational needs. An IEP must then be prepared for each child identified as having such needs. Discussion and agreement regarding the abilities, skills and talents as well as the nature and degree of the child’s special educational needs, together with an analysis of how these needs affect the child’s learni ng and development is required. The plan must include these and must also specify goals for learning and development for the child over a period not exceeding ne year. It must also specify the supports that need to be put in place to enable the child to participate in and benefit from education. The Disability Act (Department of Health and Children, 2005) enables provision for the assessment of health and education needs for persons with disabilities, arising from their situation. The Act provides for access for people with disabilities to health and education services. In relation to educational needs, Part 2 Section 8 (9) states that where an assessment is applied for it must be carried out by or at the request of an assessment officer who then identifies the need for the provision of an educational service to the child, he or she shall, in case the child is enrolled in a school, refer the matter to the principal of that school†¦in any other case, refer the matter to the coun cil for the purposes of an assessment. The Child Care (Pre-School Services) (No 2) Regulations (Department of Health and Children, 2006) set out the regulations and requirements pertaining to all aspects of the operation of pre-school settings. Regulation 5 explicitly requires that:A person carrying on a pre-school service shall ensure that each child’s learning, development and well-being is facilitated within the daily life of the service through the provision of the appropriate opportunities, experiences, activities, interaction, materials and equipment, having regard to the age and state of development of the child and the child’s cultural context. To fulfil this requirement it is necessary for practitioners to engage in making important judgements about children’s learning and development and how best to extend and enrich it. By implication this involves the practitioner in assessing learning and development.Indeed, the explanatory guide directs practitione rs to be pro-active in ensuring that appropriate action is taken to address each child’s individual needs with his/her parents and following consultation, where appropriate, with other relevant services (p. 39). While there are other pieces of legislation which impact on aspects of assessment such as the transfer of assessment information between settings, the focus of this paper is on the actual process of using assessment to support early learning and development. How best to comply with the above demands in ways that are respectful to hildren; capture the complexity of early learning; and are helpful in planning future learning experiences has now become a key issue for consideration for early childhood practitioners. Key point Assessment takes place within a particular legislative framework in Ireland. Ethical Issues The nature of the power relations between babies, toddlers and young children and the practitioners with whom they come into contact needs to be acknowledged in the assessment situation. The power of the adult and the relative dependency of children make it imperative that ethical issues are given serious consideration by practitioners.Some of these issues are discussed later in Section 5. 11 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Supporting early learning and development through formative assessment Towards a definition of formative assessment Bowman, Donovan and Burns (2001) suggest that the term assessment, as applied in early childhood education and care, generally implies the intention to provide a rich picture of the ways in which children act, think and learn. Such a picture focuses on the individual’s learning, is built up over time and provides evidence of learning in a number of different contexts.In relation to its importance, they argue that: Assessment has an important role to play in revealing a child’s prior knowledge, development of concepts and ways of interacting with and understanding the worl d so that teachers can choose a pedagogical approach and curricular materials that will support the child’s further learning and development. (p. 259) Pelligrini (1998) describes assessment in early childhood as being about the collection of information about children. This is generally understood to encompass a number of other processes besides collecting. For example, Lally nd Hurst (1992) describe how assessment also involves practitioners in documenting, analysing and reflecting on the information collected, and using this to plan and support further learning. This definition is very similar to that used in Assessment in the Primary School Curriculum: Guidelines for Schools (NCCA, 2007a). While similar methods may be useful in both early childhood settings and in primary school settings, in early childhood assessment particular account needs to be taken of the characteristics of babies, toddlers and young children and to the unique ways in which these children learn.Early childhood assessment focuses specifically on finding out what children are interested in, understand, think, feel, and are able to do. It seeks to document this information in order to understand children’s thinking and learning styles, to chart children’s progress and to support further learning. It is developmental in that it focuses on processes rather than on content or product. Key point Assessment of early learning provides a rich picture of children’s learning by collecting and documenting information. Through reflecting on and using this information, children’s future learning is supported and enhanced.Supporting learning and development Assessment in early childhood has been identified as having a number of functions – ipsative, diagnostic, summative, evaluative and informative (Wood and Attfield, 2005). Assessment in early childhood has enormous potential to support learning and development. A recent large-scale longitudinal study of ear ly learning settings in England confirmed the importance of assessment in meeting children’s needs and in supporting their cognitive progress (Siraj-Blatchford, Sylva, Muttock, Gilden and Bell, 2002).The ultimate purpose of assessment in early childhood is to make learning more interesting, enjoyable and successful for children. Drummond (1993) suggests that assessment must work for children: We can use our assessments to shape and enrich our curriculum, our interactions, our provision as a whole: we can use our assessments as a way of identifying what children will be able to learn next, so that we can support and extend that learning. Assessment is part of our daily practice in striving for quality. (p. 13) Key pointAssessment in early childhood promotes the extension and enrichment of children’s early learning and development. The following section looks at the nature of early learning and the implications for assessing early learning. 12 Aistear: the Early Childhoo d Curriculum Framework Supporting early learning and development through formative assessment Section 2: The nature of early learning This section of the paper discusses the characteristics of early learning and identifies some key theoretical constructs that guide the teaching, learning and assessment processes during early childhood.Theoretical considerations have been influential in shaping new and emerging approaches to assessment and the most salient of these are discussed in relation to their implications for the assessment of early learning and development. Characteristics of early learning During the early childhood period children’s learning across the various dimensions of development (for example, physical, motor, linguistic, emotional) is greater than at any other period, but is also highly variable across the dimensions.It also occurs very rapidly, is episodic in nature and is very susceptible to environmental conditions (Shepard et al. , 1998). These factors con tribute to making the assessment of early learning and development very challenging. The complexity of early learning We have a great deal of evidence that early learning and development is both extensive and complex (e. g. Drummond, 1993; Bowman et al. , 2001; Carr, 2002). The research paper, Children’s early learning and development (French, 2007) provides information on many facets of early learning and development.Early childhood educators have consistently sought to convey the extent of this complexity and over the years they have provided evidence of exactly how much learning children can demonstrate, provided that it is approached in appropriate ways. For instance, Donaldson (1983) clearly demonstrates how children display different levels of proficiency/learning in different contexts. In her seminal work, Children’s Minds, she reviewed research that illustrated the dramatic effect of the inclusion or omission of a single adjective in questioning children on so- called ‘logical’ tasks.She argues (p. 59) that the young child †¦ first makes sense of situations (and perhaps especially those involving human intentions) and then uses this kind of understanding to help him make sense of what is said to him. Looking not at what children say but at what they do, the work of Athey (1990) and that of Nutbrown (1999) clearly demonstrates how, as children pursue certain schema for considerable periods of time, these can be identified and supported by practitioners. Early learning is seen, for instance in Athey’s work, to have its own recognisable and valid characteristics.Nutbrown (1999) draws out the implication of that work for the assessment of children’s pathways and patterns of development and interest. This work along with that of Drummond (1993) exemplifies vividly how much of children’s learning there is to see if practitioners are open to seeing it by looking beyond what children can tell us and instead o bserving what they actually can do. Play provides an important vehicle and context for this work. Key point During the early childhood period, children’s learning is highly complex and is made visible through assessing carefully and thoughtfully.Key theoretical constructs for assessment Dahlberg, Moss and Pence (1999) observe that in recent years, especially in Western Europe, there has been a process of rethinking childhood that has led to new constructions of the child. They locate this process in a number of interrelated developments with respect to learning theories; philosophy; psychology; sociology; and a concurrent questioning of previous understandings in these fields. From this post-modern perspective, the young child is seen, from the start of life, as a construction of his or her own world.This is very similar to the perspective adopted by Malaguzzi (1993), the founder of the world-renowned Reggio Emilia pre-schools in Italy. Dahlberg et al. (1999) describe how in Reggio Emilia pre-schools, the young child is understood as a unique, complex individual who is rich in the sense that he or she is equipped from the start to engage fully and actively in their world. A wider discussion of these perspectives follows. 13 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Supporting early learning and development through formative assessmentEcological perspectives Ecological and socio-cultural theories of learning have largely dominated explanations of development and learning in early childhood in recent years. For instance, ecological (Bronfenbrenner 1979) and bioecological (Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 1998) models of human development have been influential in efforts to understand learning and development and associated processes such as assessment. These models emphasise the role in human development of both the environment and of processes.The research paper, Perspectives on the relationship between education and care (Hayes, 2007) in turn highligh ts both the importance of care and education in facilitating children’s overall development. From this perspective, human development is seen as taking place as a result of progressively more complex reciprocal interactions (p. 996) between the young child and the people, objects and symbols in the environment. To be effective the interactions must occur on a fairly regular basis over extended periods of time (p. 996).These enduring forms of interaction (proximal processes) are seen as key to learning and development and we must study these interactions over time and alongside the observation of behaviour in natural settings. From an ecologicaltheory perspective, Bronfenbrenner (1979) describes how the learner can participate in increasingly more complex learning situations and in doing so take increasingly greater responsibility in the learning situation. The perspective also emphasises the agency or active nature of children in their interactions with adults, objects and sy mbols.The model can be used to draw attention to the interpersonal and situational aspects of assessment, for example: the importance of the personal characteristics of the child and the adult in the assessment context, the importance of reciprocal interactions between child and adult and the importance of assessing children’s level of engagement with the objects and symbols provided in the immediate environment. Thus the ecological approach emphasises assessment of children engaged in real tasks in natural settings.This perspective sits very well with the socio-cultural perspective that we look at next. Socio-cultural perspectives In the past two decades socio-cultural perspectives, that is perspectives that highlight the social and cultural nature of learning, are increasingly used to explain the ways that learning and development occur in early childhood (Anning, Cullen and Fleer, 2004). Socio-cultural theories of learning suggest that the process of learning is as much a social construction as it is an individual one. Rogoff (1998, p. 91) describes development as transformation of participation. Transformation occurs at a number of levels: for instance, the learner changes at the level of their involvement, in the role they play in the learning situation, in the ability they demonstrate in moving flexibly from one learning context to another, and in the amount of responsibility taken in the situation. Activity theory also concentrates on the social aspects of learning. Activity theory Activity theory, which is a development of aspects of Vygotsky’s work (See for example, Engerstrom et al. 1999), is also being highlighted as a theoretical framework that may be useful in explaining the complexity of learning–related issues in early childhood. Fleer, Anning and Cullen (2004) explain how activity theory, in common with Rogoff’s discussion of socio-cultural theory, focuses on the study of the complexity of human behaviour in social g roups and in specific contexts. The theory is premised on the notion that the contextual features of a task contribute to †¦ performance on that task (p. 178).Furthermore, children use tools such as language, a particular action or resource to mediate knowledge in interactions with others. But the cultural features of the context in which they use these tools influences the way activities are performed and understood. Key point If socio-cultural theory informs our understanding of how children learn, it also by implication informs our understanding of assessment. 14 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Supporting early learning and development through formative assessmentWhat all of these perspectives hold in common is their emphasis on the socially constructed nature of learning and of assessment. There are a number of other important constructs that also unite them to greater or lesser degrees. These include children’s agency, the importance of collaborati on, and the co-construction of meaning and knowledge. These constructs are particularly helpful when thinking about the quality of the interactions between practitioners and young learners. Quality interactions are increasingly recognised as central to pedagogy (Black and Wiliam 1998a; Siraj-Blatchford et al. , 2002).The next sub-section discusses these ideas in some detail, and in doing so, draws out the implications for assessment practices in early childhood. Children’s agency Bruner (1999a) argues that advances in the study of human development provide us with a profile of the child as an active, intentional being; with knowledge as ‘man-made’ rather than simply there; with ways to negotiate with others in the construction of knowledge. (See French (2007) for more detailed information. ) A crucial aspect of identity and self-esteem is that the child sees him/her self as an agent in control of his/her own actions.Some ways in which children display their agenc y is by taking the initiative in learning situations, by observing and becoming involved in ongoing events, or by initiating conversations with others. Agency is about taking more control of your own mental activity (Bruner, 1996, p. 87). Bruner argues that the agentive mind is not only active in nature but it seeks out dialogue and discourse with other active minds (p. 93). Bruner (1999a) identifies efforts to recognise children’s perspectives in the processes of learning as highly significant and he uses the term pedagogy of mutuality (p. 3) to describe the pedagogy that arises from such endeavours. It is premised on the belief that children are able to reason; to make sense (both alone and in discourse with others); to reflect and to hold theories about self and about the world. The practitioner, according to Bruner (p. 12) is concerned with understanding what the child thinks and how he/she arrives at what he/she believes. He identifies four key research constructs which have enriched this perspective on teaching and learning (and by implication assessment):  ¦Ã‚ ¦Intersubjectivity – how the child develops the ability to read other minds  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Theory of mind – the child’s grasp of another’s intentional state  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Meta-cognition – what the child thinks about learning, remembering thinking  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Collaborative learning – how children, through talk and discussion, explain and revise their thinking. These theoretical ideas are important also in the analysis of assessment as it relates to early learning and development. Children’s collaboration in learning is also important and this is considered below. Key pointThe active role which children themselves play in their interactions with others needs to be recognised and taken into account in any assessment of learning. Children’s collaboration in learning Zone of proximal development Vygotsky’s theory of learning (1978; 1986) has bee n highly influential in helping to explain the processes of learning in early childhood. In particular, his notion of the zone of proximal development has provided the foundation and potential for some of the most important recent initiatives in the assessment of individual children’s learning (Lunt, 2000).Berk and Winsler (1995) describe Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (ZPD) as a dynamic zone of sensitivity in which learning and cognitive development occur. Tasks that children cannot do individually but they can do with help from others invoke mental functioning that are currently in the process of developing, rather than those that have already matured (p. 26). It appears that Vygotsky originally introduced the ZPD in the context of arguing against intelligence testing which he felt was seeking to assess something static and did not reflect the dynamic and ever-changing 5 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Supporting early learning and developm ent through formative assessment nature of human cognition. Adult-child collaboration within the ZPD is critical for effective teaching and learning interactions because it is within such interactions that the practitioner identifies how the child may be assisted in learning and what the child is capable of doing with appropriate support. The practitioner also has the opportunity to assess the impact of such support on the child’s progress.This approach to assessment effectively merges the teaching and assessment processes. It is commonly referred to as dynamic assessment. When Feuerstein (1979) first proposed this form of assessment he was envisioning, in essence, a joint problem-solving situation during which the practitioner gauges the nature and extent of assistance required by the child in order to solve the problem. Children’s responsiveness to appropriate instructional interactions is a key factor in dynamic assessment situations and it is now considered to be a n important predictor of learning potential (Berk and Winsler, 1995).Lidz (1991) emphasises that: The focus of dynamic assessment is on the assessor’s ability to discover the means of facilitating the learning of the child, not on the child’s demonstration of ability to the assessor (as cited in Berk and Winsler, 1995, p. 139). Dynamic assessment is considered by Berk and Winsler (ibid. ) as especially useful for making visible the learning potential of those children whose early experiences do not include experiences that prepare them for learning in group/institutional settings. (For a comprehensive discussion of dynamic assessment and emerging approaches to such assessment, see Lunt, 2000).The concept of scaffolding is often associated with ZPD and it is this which we turn our attention to next. Key point Practitioner’s interactions with children often incorporate both teaching and assessment. It is critical that the practitioner is capable of engaging certai n interactive skills in such situations since these will be necessary to ensure optimal learning and development. Scaffolding Effective scaffolding (Wood, Bruner and Ross, 1976), where the adult guides the child’s learning in the ZPD, is an important feature of the engagement of the child in joint problem solving.Here, the child interacts with the practitioner while the two are jointly trying to reach a goal and this results in the establishment of intersubjectivity (Newson and Newson, 1975). Intersubjectivity refers to the process whereby two participants achieve a shared understanding whilst undertaking a task that they approach from different perspectives. The parties co-construct meanings in activities that involve higher–order thinking (Vygotsky, 1978). Rogoff (1998) emphasises the ongoing mutual process of understanding, which is inherent in joint problemsolving interactions.She also draws attention to the institutional and cultural aspects of joint problemsolvin g activities. She distinguishes between her socio-cultural approach to studying experts’ support of novices’ learning and other approaches which focus on particular techniques such as scaffolding. Rogoff distinguishes between the concepts of ‘scaffolding’ and of working in the zone of proximal development. She describes scaffolding as a specific technique focusing on what experts provide for novices; it focuses on the tutor’s efforts as they relate contingently to the novice’s successes and failures (p. 699).However, working in the zone of proximal development is, in her view, wider than scaffolding. It focuses on the processes of communication that builds a continually evolving mutual perspective. It is a way of describing an activity in which someone with greater expertise assists someone else †¦ to participate in socio-cultural activities in a way that exceeds what they could do otherwise (p. 699). Mutual contribution is an essential consideration so interactions and communicative and collaborative processes all form part of the picture, rather than just the child’s successes or errors as in scaffolding.Rogoff argues that The concept of scaffolding does not refer to the institutional and cultural context in which it occurs, whereas the concept of zone of proximal development requires attention to processes of communication and the relation of the interaction at hand to institutional, cultural and historic processes. (p. 700) 16 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Supporting early learning and development through formative assessment Key point Supporting children’s learning is an important part of assessment. For the practitioner this is often far more complex than simply applying a technique such as scaffolding.Learners make an equally important contribution. Intersubjectivity and collaboration are important in scaffolding children’s learning and we look at these two concepts b elow. Intersubjectivity and collaboration Rogoff (1990; 1998) has illustrated how children make an important contribution in collaborating in the process of establishing joint understanding. Children, including infants in the first year of life, can sometimes be observed to be deliberately taking the lead in collaborative activities by seeking information or by directing activities.Rogoff’s analysis, consistent with Vygotsky, suggests that the intersubjectivity as achieved by adults and babies is different from that achieved by adults and children who can use linguistic (verbal and gestural) communication to achieve mutual understandings. This then has implications for the assessment process across the age range birth to six years. Working in the zone of proximal development with a toddler will include the adult engaging in the demonstration of objects, collaborative activity with objects and the focusing of the child’s attention.Rogoff (1998) points out that the child , for example in seeking to help the adult in everyday chores, very often initiates such activity. Older toddlers and young children will often seek to assert their independence in doing a particular task themselves but Rogoff’s analysis of the research suggests that they also will actively seek assistance when they are stuck. Recently a question has arisen about the capacity of early years settings to support the kinds of relationships and shared experiences that enable children to engage in the types of social participation that promote optimum learning (Parker-Rees, 2007).The research indicates that the nature and scope of babies, toddlers and children’s interactions with parents, the playful quality of these interactions and the extent to which relationships can influence reciprocal imitative behaviour (an important process of learning especially in the first year) must all be fully appreciated by practitioners and be seen as desirable conditions for learning in th e setting. Key point The concept of collaboration is key when considering assessment from a socio-cultural perspective.In collaborating, the child and the practitioner are involved in each other’s thinking processes through shared efforts. In order to assess certain aspects of learning by babies, toddlers and young children, it is essential for adults to collaborate with the children in order to understand their learning. The co-construction of knowledge is supported by intersubjectivity and collaboration and it is to this that we next draw our attention. Children as co-constructors of knowledgeIn recent times the term ‘co-construction’ has featured prominently in influential early childhood publications, although it was implicit in the last century in the work of Dewey (1933) who emphasised the ways in which children construct their learning by actively engaging in, and shaping, their experiences and environments. For instance, Jordan (2004) discusses the term s caffolding and compares it with coconstruction. The specific pattern of interaction that characterised early accounts of scaffolding, according to Jordan (ibid. and Rogoff (1998), generally maintained the power and control with the adult. They argue that the term co-construction emphasises the child as a powerful player in his/her own learning. An example of how this process of co-construction works in practice is illustrated in the discussions of the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education (Edwards, Gandini and Forman, 1998). Co-construction refers to adults and children making meaning and knowledge together (MacNaughton and Williams, 2004).Co-construction recognises the child’s expertise and in order to understand this, the practitioner needs to interact with the child and become aware of the child’s thoughts and thereby to establish intersubjectivity. 17 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Supporting early learning and development through f ormative assessment Recent research (Siraj-Blatchford et al. , 2002) also highlighted the process of co-construction and found it to be a key factor in terms of promoting children’s learning.Essentially a co-construction perspective emphasises understanding and meaning on the part of both child and adult, rather than the acquisition of facts by the child. Jordan (2004) concludes that the two concepts, scaffolding and co-construction have different applicability depending on whether the goal of the practitioner is the exploration of thinking or the achievement of pre-specified learning goals. Key point Co-construction of meaning and knowledge is central to teaching, learning and assessment and it occurs when both child and practitioner engage together in achieving mutual understanding.Play as a context for formative assessment As this paper demonstrates, children’s learning is complex and assessment approaches need to take cognisance of this. In early childhood, this co mplexity is abundantly evident as children engage in play. The importance of play to young children’s learning and development is a key principle for early childhood practitioners (Wood, 2004). Assessing children’s understandings and progress as they play, either alone or with others, is a crucial activity in early year’s settings. In assessing the child’s learning through play the adult can use a range of approaches and methods.Practitioners make assessments by focusing on children’s play interests, their levels of engagement and participation. They make assessments while skilfully engaging with children in play. Skilful engagement includes intervention in play as and when appropriate. Such interventions may serve to initiate or sustain interactions, thereby leading to shared talking and thinking. They may also involve scaffolding children in order to enable them to reach their potential at a particular time. (See the research paper, Play as a con text for early learning and development (Kernan, 2007) for detailed information on play. Children’s learning is a complex matter and assessment approaches need to take cognisance of this. The paper now looks at emerging approaches to assessment, all of which take account of play as a vehicle for learning and development. Key point Assessing children’s understandings and progress as they play, either alone or with others, is a crucial activity in early year’s settings. Emerging approaches to assessment The rationale for using assessment to enrich and extend children’s learning can be located in recent developments in society’s understandings of learning in the early years.For instance, in recent decades there have been very big changes in our understandings of human nature and of learning. Gardner (1999, p. 91) reviews what he describes as several lines of evidence from the cognitive, neural, and developmental sciences which point to a far more capa cious view of the human mind and of human learning than that which informed earlier conceptions. He presents a picture of assessment that builds on the newly emerging picture of human development (see Table 1). Gardner’s principles complement the earlier principles presented by Shepard et al. 1998). (See pages 16-17. ) 18 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Supporting early learning and development through formative assessment Table 1: Gardner’s understanding of human development and assessment and Shepard’s guiding principles of assessment Features of human development Features of assessment In understanding human development, there is Assessment should  ¦Ã‚ ¦ be simple, natural and occurring on a reliable schedule evidence for the existence of multiple faculties or ‘intelligences’  ¦Ã‚ ¦ have ecological validity (be done in situations hat are real)  ¦Ã‚ ¦ recognition of vast individual differences;  ¦Ã‚ ¦  ¦Ã‚ ¦ the desirab ility of assessing learning in context utilise instruments that are intelligence-fair and not dependent on language or logical faculties  ¦Ã‚ ¦ locating competence and skill ‘outside the head of the individual’.  ¦Ã‚ ¦ use multiple measures  ¦Ã‚ ¦ be sensitive to individual differences, developmental levels and forms of expertise  ¦Ã‚ ¦ use materials which are intrinsically interesting and motivating  ¦Ã‚ ¦ yield information to be used for the learner’s benefit.  ¦Ã‚ ¦ a necessity for a developmental perspective  ¦Ã‚ ¦ n emergence of a symbol-system perspective  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Performance and authentic assessment incorporate some of Gardner’s ideas and a discussion of these follows below. Performance assessment and authentic assessment Emerging approaches to assessment take account of developments in theories about learning and about human development. Performance assessment is currently seen as an approach that is particularly appropriate for asses sing many aspects of early learning and development (see Bowman et al. , 2001). Meisels (1999) describes performance assessment as assessments that are ounded on the notion that learning and development can only be assessed over time and in interactions with materials, objects and other people. In this approach to assessment, the expectation is that tasks must be practical, realistic and challenging for children (Torrance, 2001). Performance assessment implies observation of children as they undertake a number of routine tasks in early learning settings. According to Meisels (1999, p. 58) these should meet a number of criteria:  ¦Ã‚ ¦ tasks should bring together various skills that children display and demonstrate during the course of interactions  ¦ children should be assisted to perform to the very best of their ability  ¦Ã‚ ¦ tasks should be guided by developmental standards  ¦Ã‚ ¦ tasks should engage children in reflection about their work and in articulating their ideas about their learning. Authentic assessment is a type of performance assessment. It is described as compatible with the prevailing philosophy that emphasises whole child development (Puckett and Black 2000, p. 6). This philosophy explains development across a range of domains (for example social, moral, emotional, language and cognitive).It also recognises the diversity of early learning and the role of environmental factors in shaping that learning. From an authentic assessment perspective, curriculum and assessment are interwoven and emphasise relevant and meaningful experiences. Assessment focuses on what children do, and on how they do it in the context of meaningful tasks. Authentic assessment has a number of identifiable features (Puckett and Black, 2000, p. 7), including the following: 19 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Supporting early learning and development through formative assessment  ¦Ã‚ ¦ an emphasis on emerging development  ¦ a focus on the youn g child’s individual strengths and weaknesses  ¦Ã‚ ¦ is based on principles of child growth and development  ¦Ã‚ ¦ emanates from logical, meaningful, relevant and applicable curricula  ¦Ã‚ ¦ is performance based  ¦Ã‚ ¦ recognises different intelligence and learning styles  ¦Ã‚ ¦ is reflective and analytic  ¦Ã‚ ¦ is ongoing and occurs in many contexts  ¦Ã‚ ¦ is collaborative with learners, parents and others involved in children’s learning  ¦Ã‚ ¦ is interwoven with teaching. Key point Authentic assessment is compatible with a whole child perspective on learning and development. 20 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum FrameworkSupporting early learning and development through formative assessment Summary Where the purpose of assessment is to promote further learning, assessment becomes a particular type of teaching strategy. (See Marshall and Drummond, 2006). Assessment from a socio-cultural perspective takes account of the key learning processes as de termined by socio-cultural theory. In particular, collaboration and the importance in that process of the establishment of mutual understanding (intersubjectivity) need to be emphasised, as do ideas about children’s agency and those related to the co-construction of knowledge and understanding.An understanding of the different processes that contribute to children’s learning, and the types of interactions that promote it are key to understanding how such learning can best be assessed. The recognition of these processes at work is also central in conceptualising assessment approaches that take account of and display the key role of children themselves in the assessment process. Authentic assessment reflects new understandings about learning and about human development, and recognises the holistic, contextualised and dynamic nature of learning in early childhood.Having discussed the interconnection between how children learn and approaches to assessment, the next section looks at what to assess in children’s early learning and development. 21 Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Supporting early learning and development through formative assessment Section 3: What to assess in early learning This section of the paper identifies aspects of learning that are of concern in assessing children’s early learning and development. The challenges of assessing a wide range of learning and development in a balanced way are discussed.The essentials of learning Skills and knowledge are important in respect of early learning. However, increasingly there are calls for a wider view of what it is that children are learning in the years from birth to six, and for explicitness about other areas of children’s development that are now recognised as critical for long term success. For instance, Bertram and Pascal (2002) identify social competence, emotional well-being and dispositions to learn as core constituent elements of the effectiv e learner.In relation to each of these areas they identify elements that characterise the effective learner. Indicators related to disposition include independence, creativity, self-motivation and resilience. Those related to emotional literacy include empowerment, connectedness, and positive self-esteem. Those related to social competence inco