A Brief History of Hci

A Brief History of Human Computer Interaction Technology Brad A. Myers Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science Technical Report CMU-CS-96-163 and Human Computer Interaction Institute Technical Report CMU-HCII-96-103 December, 1996 Please cite this work as: Brad A. Myers. â€Å"A Brief History of Human Computer Interaction Technology. † ACM interactions. Vol. 5, no. 2, March, 1998. pp. 44-54. Human Computer Interaction Institute School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891 [email  protected] gp. s. cmu. edu Abstract This article summarizes the historical development of major advances in human-computer interaction technology, emphasizing the pivotal role of university research in the advancement of the field. Copyright (c) 1996 — Carnegie Mellon University A short excerpt from this article appeared as part of â€Å"Strategic Directions in Human Computer Interaction,† edited by Brad Myers, Jim Hollan, Isabel Cruz, A CM Computing Surveys, 28(4), December 1996 This research was partially sponsored by NCCOSC under Contract No. N66001-94-C-6037, Arpa Order No. B326 and partially by NSF under grant number IRI-9319969. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of NCCOSC or the U. S. Government. Keywords: Human Computer Interaction, History, User Interfaces, Interaction Techniques. [pic] 1. Introduction Research in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has been spectacularly uccessful, and has fundamentally changed computing. Just one example is the ubiquitous graphical interface used by Microsoft Windows 95, which is based on the Macintosh, which is based on work at Xerox PARC, which in turn is based on early research at the Stanford Research Laboratory (now SRI) and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Another example is that virtually all software written today employs user interface toolkits and interface builders, concepts which were developed first at universities. Even the spectacular growth of the World-Wide Web is a direct result of HCI research: applying hypertext technology to browsers allows one to traverse a link across the world with a click of the mouse. Interface improvements more than anything else has triggered this explosive growth. Furthermore, the research that will lead to the user interfaces for the computers of tomorrow is happening at universities and a few corporate research labs. This paper tries to briefly summarize many of the important research developments in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) technology. By â€Å"research,† I mean exploratory work at universities and government and corporate research labs (such as Xerox PARC) that is not directly related to products. By â€Å"HCI technology,† I am referring to the computer side of HCI. A companion article on the history of the â€Å"human side,† discussing the contributions from psychology, design, human factors and ergonomics would also be appropriate. A motivation for this article is to overcome the mistaken impression that much of the important work in Human-Computer Interaction occurred in industry, and if university research in Human-Computer Interaction is not supported, then industry will just carry on anyway. This is simply not true. This paper tries to show that many of the most famous HCI successes developed by companies are deeply rooted in university research. In fact, virtually all of today's major interface styles and applications have had significant influence from research at universities and labs, often with government funding. To illustrate this, this paper lists the funding sources of some of the major advances. Without this research, many of the advances in the field of HCI would probably not have taken place, and as a consequence, the user interfaces of commercial products would be far more difficult to use and learn than they are today. As described by Stu Card: â€Å"Government funding of advanced human-computer interaction technologies built the intellectual capital and trained the research teams for pioneer systems that, over a period of 25 years, revolutionized how people interact with computers. Industrial research laboratories at the corporate level in Xerox, IBM, AT&T, and others played a strong role in developing this technology and bringing it into a form suitable for the commercial arena. † [6, p. 162]). Figure 1 shows time lines for some of the technologies discussed in this article. Of course, a deeper analysis would reveal much interaction between the university, corporate research and commercial activity streams. It is important to appreciate that years of research are involved in creating and making these technologies ready for widespread use. The same will be true for the HCI technologies that will provide the interfaces of tomorrow. It is clearly impossible to list every system and source in a paper of this scope, but I have tried to represent the earliest and most influential systems. Although there are a number of other surveys of HCI topics (see, for example [1] [10] [33] [38]), none cover as many aspects as this one, or try to be as comprehensive in finding the original influences. Another useful resource is the video â€Å"All The Widgets,† which shows the historical progression of a number of user interface ideas [25]. The technologies covered in this paper include fundamental interaction styles like direct manipulation, the mouse pointing device, and windows; several important kinds of application areas, such as drawing, text editing and spreadsheets; the technologies that will likely have the biggest impact on interfaces of the future, such as gesture recognition, multimedia, and 3D; and the technologies used to create interfaces using the other technologies, such as user interface management systems, toolkits, and interface builders. [pic] [pic] Figure 1: Approximate time lines showing where work was performed on some major technologies discussed in this article. [pic] 2. Basic Interactions †¢ Direct Manipulation of graphical objects: The now ubiquitous direct manipulation interface, where visible objects on the screen are directly manipulated with a pointing device, was first demonstrated by Ivan Sutherland in Sketchpad [44], which was his 1963 MIT PhD thesis. SketchPad supported the manipulation of objects using a light-pen, including grabbing objects, moving them, changing size, and using constraints. It contained the seeds of myriad important interface ideas. The system was built at Lincoln Labs with support from the Air Force and NSF. William Newman's Reaction Handler [30], created at Imperial College, London (1966-67) provided direct manipulation of graphics, and introduced â€Å"Light Handles,† a form of graphical potentiometer, that was probably the first â€Å"widget. † Another early system was AMBIT/G (implemented at MIT's Lincoln Labs, 1968, ARPA funded). It employed, among other interface techniques, iconic representations, gesture recognition, dynamic menus with items selected using a pointing device, selection of icons by pointing, and moded and mode-free styles of interaction. David Canfield Smith coined the term â€Å"icons† in his 1975 Stanford PhD thesis on Pygmalion [41] (funded by ARPA and NIMH) and Smith later popularized icons as one of the chief designers of the Xerox Star [42]. Many of the interaction techniques popular in direct manipulation interfaces, such as how objects and text are selected, opened, and manipulated, were researched at Xerox PARC in the 1970's. In particular, the idea of â€Å"WYSIWYG† (what you see is what you get) originated there with systems such as the Bravo text editor and the Draw drawing program [10] The concept of direct manipulation interfaces for everyone was envisioned by Alan Kay of Xerox PARC in a 1977 article about the â€Å"Dynabook† [16]. The first commercial systems to make extensive use of Direct Manipulation were the Xerox Star (1981) [42], the Apple Lisa (1982) [51] and Macintosh (1984) [52]. Ben Shneiderman at the University of Maryland coined the term â€Å"Direct Manipulation† in 1982 and identified the components and gave psychological foundations [40]. The Mouse: The mouse was developed at Stanford Research Laboratory (now SRI) in 1965 as part of the NLS project (funding from ARPA, NASA, and Rome ADC) [9] to be a cheap replacement for light-pens, which had been used at least since 1954 [10, p. 68]. Many of the current uses of the mouse were demonstrated by Doug Engelbart as par t of NLS in a movie created in 1968 [8]. The mouse was then made famous as a practical input device by Xerox PARC in the 1970's. It first appeared commercially as part of the Xerox Star (1981), the Three Rivers Computer Company's PERQ (1981) [23], the Apple Lisa (1982), and Apple Macintosh (1984). Windows: Multiple tiled windows were demonstrated in Engelbart's NLS in 1968 [8]. Early research at Stanford on systems like COPILOT (1974) [46] and at MIT with the EMACS text editor (1974) [43] also demonstrated tiled windows. Alan Kay proposed the idea of overlapping windows in his 1969 University of Utah PhD thesis [15] and they first appeared in 1974 in his Smalltalk system [11] at Xerox PARC, and soon after in the InterLisp system [47]. Some of the first commercial uses of windows were on Lisp Machines Inc. (LMI) and Symbolics Lisp Machines (1979), which grew out of MIT AI Lab projects. The Cedar Window Manager from Xerox PARC was the first major tiled window manager (1981) [45], followed soon by the Andrew window manager [32] by Carnegie Mellon University's Information Technology Center (1983, funded by IBM). The main commercial systems popularizing windows were the Xerox Star (1981), the Apple Lisa (1982), and most importantly the Apple Macintosh (1984). The early versions of the Star and Microsoft Windows were tiled, but eventually they supported overlapping windows like the Lisa and Macintosh. The X Window System, a current international standard, was developed at MIT in 1984 [39]. For a survey of window managers, see [24]. 3. Application Types †¢ Drawing programs: Much of the current technology was demonstrated in Sutherland's 1963 Sketchpad system. The use of a mouse for graphics was demonstrated in NLS (1965). In 1968 Ken Pulfer and Grant Bechthold at the National Research Council of Canada built a mouse out of wood patterned after Engelbart's and used it with a key-frame animation system to draw all the frames of a movie. A subsequent movie, â€Å"Hunger† in 1971 won a number of awards, and was drawn using a tablet instead of the mouse (funding by the National Film Board of Canada) [3]. William Newman's Markup (1975) was the first drawing program for Xerox PARC's Alto, followed shortly by Patrick Baudelaire's Draw which added handling of lines and curves [10, p. 326]. The first computer painting program was probably Dick Shoup's â€Å"Superpaint† at PARC (1974-75). †¢ Text Editing: In 1962 at the Stanford Research Lab, Engelbart proposed, and later implemented, a word processor with automatic word wrap, search and replace, user-definable macros, scrolling text, and commands to move, copy, and delete characters, words, or blocks of text. Stanford's TVEdit (1965) was one of the first CRT-based display editors that was widely used [48]. The Hypertext Editing System [50, p. 108] from Brown University had screen editing and formatting of arbitrary-sized strings with a lightpen in 1967 (funding from IBM). NLS demonstrated mouse-based editing in 1968. TECO from MIT was an early screen-editor (1967) and EMACS [43] developed from it in 1974. Xerox PARC's Bravo [10, p. 284] was the first WYSIWYG editor-formatter (1974). It was designed by Butler Lampson and Charles Simonyi who had started working on these concepts around 1970 while at Berkeley. The first commercial WYSIWYG editors were the Star, LisaWrite and then MacWrite. For a survey of text editors, see [22] [50, p. 108]. †¢ Spreadsheets: The initial spreadsheet was VisiCalc which was developed by Frankston and Bricklin (1977-8) for the Apple II while they were students at MIT and the Harvard Business School. The solver was based on a dependency-directed backtracking algorithm by Sussman and Stallman at the MIT AI Lab. †¢ HyperText: The idea for hypertext (where documents are linked to related documents) is credited to Vannevar Bush's famous MEMEX idea from 1945 [4]. Ted Nelson coined the term â€Å"hypertext† in 1965 [29]. Engelbart's NLS system [8] at the Stanford Research Laboratories in 1965 made extensive use of linking (funding from ARPA, NASA, and Rome ADC). The â€Å"NLS Journal† [10, p. 212] was one of the first on-line journals, and it included full linking of articles (1970). The Hypertext Editing System, jointly designed by Andy van Dam, Ted Nelson, and two students at Brown University (funding from IBM) was distributed extensively [49]. The University of Vermont's PROMIS (1976) was the first Hypertext system released to the user community. It was used to link patient and patient care information at the University of Vermont's medical center. The ZOG project (1977) from CMU was another early hypertext system, and was funded by ONR and DARPA [36]. Ben Shneiderman's Hyperties was the first system where highlighted items in the text could be clicked on to go to other pages (1983, Univ. of Maryland) [17]. HyperCard from Apple (1988) significantly helped to bring the idea to a wide audience. There have been many other hypertext systems through the years. Tim Berners-Lee used the hypertext idea to create the World Wide Web in 1990 at the government-funded European Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN). Mosaic, the irst popular hypertext browser for the World-Wide Web was developed at the Univ. of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA). For a more complete history of HyperText, see [31]. †¢ Computer Aided Design (CAD): The same 1963 IFIPS conference at which Sketchpad was presented also contained a number of CAD systems, including Doug Ross's Computer-Aided Design Project at MIT in the Electronic Syste ms Lab [37] and Coons' work at MIT with SketchPad [7]. Timothy Johnson's pioneering work on the interactive 3D CAD system Sketchpad 3 [13] was his 1963 MIT MS thesis (funded by the Air Force). The first CAD/CAM system in industry was probably General Motor's DAC-1 (about 1963). †¢ Video Games: The first graphical video game was probably SpaceWar by Slug Russel of MIT in 1962 for the PDP-1 [19, p. 49] including the first computer joysticks. The early computer Adventure game was created by Will Crowther at BBN, and Don Woods developed this into a more sophisticated Adventure game at Stanford in 1966 [19, p. 132]. Conway's game of LIFE was implemented on computers at MIT and Stanford in 1970. The first popular commercial game was Pong (about 1976). 4. Up-and-Coming Areas Gesture Recognition: The first pen-based input device, the RAND tablet, was funded by ARPA. Sketchpad used light-pen gestures (1963). Teitelman in 1964 developed the first trainable gesture recognizer. A very early demonstration of gesture recognition was Tom Ellis' GRAIL system on the RAND tablet (1964, ARPA funded). It was quite common in light-pen-based systems to include some gesture recognition, for example in the AMBIT/G system (1968 — ARPA funded). A gesture-based text editor using proof-reading symbols was developed at CMU by Michael Coleman in 1969. Bill Buxton at the University of Toronto has been studying gesture-based interactions since 1980. Gesture recognition has been used in commercial CAD systems since the 1970s, and came to universal notice with the Apple Newton in 1992. †¢ Multi-Media: The FRESS project at Brown used multiple windows and integrated text and graphics (1968, funding from industry). The Interactive Graphical Documents project at Brown was the first hypermedia (as opposed to hypertext) system, and used raster graphics and text, but not video (1979-1983, funded by ONR and NSF). The Diamond project at BBN (starting in 1982, DARPA funded) explored combining multimedia information (text, spreadsheets, graphics, speech). The Movie Manual at the Architecture Machine Group (MIT) was one of the first to demonstrate mixed video and computer graphics in 1983 (DARPA funded). †¢ 3-D: The first 3-D system was probably Timothy Johnson's 3-D CAD system mentioned above (1963, funded by the Air Force). The â€Å"Lincoln Wand† by Larry Roberts was an ultrasonic 3D location sensing system, developed at Lincoln Labs (1966, ARPA funded). That system also had the first interactive 3-D hidden line elimination. An early use was for molecular modelling [18]. The late 60's and early 70's saw the flowering of 3D raster graphics research at the University of Utah with Dave Evans, Ivan Sutherland, Romney, Gouraud, Phong, and Watkins, much of it government funded. Also, the military-industrial flight simulation work of the 60's – 70's led the way to making 3-D real-time with commercial systems from GE, Evans, Singer/Link (funded by NASA, Navy, etc. ). Another important center of current research in 3-D is Fred Brooks' lab at UNC (e. g. [2]). Virtual Reality and â€Å"Augmented Reality†: The original work on VR was performed by Ivan Sutherland when he was at Harvard (1965-1968, funding by Air Force, CIA, and Bell Labs). Very important early work was by Tom Furness when he was at Wright-Patterson AFB. Myron Krueger's early work at the University of Connecticut was influential. Fred Brooks' and Henry Fuch's groups at UNC did a lot of early research, including the study of force feedbac k (1971, funding from US Atomic Energy Commission and NSF). Much of the early research on head-mounted displays and on the DataGlove was supported by NASA. Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Doug Engelbart's 1968 demonstration of NLS [8] included the remote participation of multiple people at various sites (funding from ARPA, NASA, and Rome ADC). Licklider and Taylor predicted on-line interactive communities in an 1968 article [20] and speculated about the problem of access being limited to the privileged. Electronic mail, still the most widespread multi-user software, was enabled by the ARPAnet, which became operational in 1969, and by the Ethernet from Xerox PARC in 1973. An early computer conferencing system was Turoff's EIES system at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (1975). †¢ Natural language and speech: The fundamental research for speech and natural language understanding and generation has been performed at CMU, MIT, SRI, BBN, IBM, AT Bell Labs and BellCore, much of it government funded. See, for example, [34] for a survey of the early work. 5. Software Tools and Architectures The area of user interface software tools is quite active now, and many companies are selling tools. Most of today's applications are implemented using various forms of software tools. For a more complete survey and discussion of UI tools, see [26]. †¢ UIMSs and Toolkits: (There are software libraries and tools that support creating interfaces by writing code. ) The first User Interface Management System (UIMS) was William Newman's Reaction Handler [30] created at Imperial College, London (1966-67 with SRC funding). Most of the early work was done at universities (Univ. of Toronto with Canadian government funding, George Washington Univ. with NASA, NSF, DOE, and NBS funding, Brigham Young University with industrial funding, etc. . The term â€Å"UIMS† was coined by David Kasik at Boeing (1982) [14]. Early window managers such as Smalltalk (1974) and InterLisp, both from Xerox PARC, came with a few widgets, such as popup menus and scrollbars. The Xerox Star (1981) was the first commercial system to have a large collection of widgets. The Apple Macintosh (1984) was the first to actively promote its toolkit for use by other developers to enforce a consiste nt interface. An early C++ toolkit was InterViews [21], developed at Stanford (1988, industrial funding). Much of the modern research is being performed at universities, for example the Garnet (1988) [28] and Amulet (1994) [27] projects at CMU (ARPA funded), and subArctic at Georgia Tech (1996, funding by Intel and NSF). †¢ Interface Builders: (These are interactive tools that allow interfaces composed of widgets such as buttons, menus and scrollbars to be placed using a mouse. ) The Steamer project at BBN (1979-85; ONR funding) demonstrated many of the ideas later incorporated into interface builders and was probably the first object-oriented graphics system. Trillium [12] was developed at Xerox PARC in 1981. Another early interface builder was the MenuLay system [5] developed by Bill Buxton at the University of Toronto (1983, funded by the Canadian Government). The Macintosh (1984) included a â€Å"Resource Editor† which allowed widgets to be placed and edited. Jean-Marie Hullot created â€Å"SOS Interface† in Lisp for the Macintosh while working at INRIA (1984, funded by the French government) which was the first modern â€Å"interface builder. † Hullot built this into a commercial product in 1986 and then went to work for NeXT and created the NeXT Interface Builder (1988), which popularized this type of tool. Now there are literally hundreds of commercial interface builders. †¢ Component Architectures: The idea of creating interfaces by connecting separately written components was first demonstrated in the Andrew project [32] by Carnegie Mellon University's Information Technology Center (1983, funded by IBM). It is now being widely popularized by Microsoft's OLE and Apple's OpenDoc architectures. 6. Discussion It is clear that all of the most important innovations in Human-Computer Interaction have benefited from research at both corporate research labs and universities, much of it funded by the government. The conventional style of graphical user interfaces that use windows, icons, menus and a mouse and are in a phase of standardization, where almost everyone is using the same, standard technology and just making minute, incremental changes. Therefore, it is important that university, corporate, and government-supported research continue, so that we can develop the science and technology needed for the user interfaces of the future. Another important argument in favor of HCI research in universities is that computer science students need to know about user interface issues. User interfaces are likely to be one of the main value-added competitive advantages of the future, as both hardware and basic software become commodities. If students do not know about user interfaces, they will not serve industry needs. It seems that only through computer science does HCI research disseminate out into products. Furthermore, without appropriate levels of funding of academic HCI research, there will be fewer PhD graduates in HCI to perform research in corporate labs, and fewer top-notch graduates in this area will be interested in being professors, so the needed user interface courses will not be offered. As computers get faster, more of the processing power is being devoted to the user interface. The interfaces of the future will use gesture recognition, speech recognition and generation, â€Å"intelligent agents,† adaptive interfaces, video, and many other technologies now being investigated by research groups at universities and corporate labs [35]. It is imperative that this research continue and be well-supported. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I must thank a large number of people who responded to posts of earlier versions of this article on the announcements. hi mailing list for their very generous help, and to Jim Hollan who helped edit the short excerpt of this article. Much of the information in this article was supplied by (in alphabetical order): Stacey Ashlund, Meera M. Blattner, Keith Butler, Stuart K. Card, Bill Curtis, David E. Damouth, Dan Diaper, Dick Duda, Tim T. K. Dudley, Steven Feiner, Harry Forsdick, Bjorn Freeman-Benson, John Gould, Wayne Gray, Mark Green, Fred Hansen, Bill Hefley, D. Austin Henderson, Jim Hollan, Jean-Marie Hullot, Rob Jacob, Bonnie John, Sandy Kobayashi, T. K. Landauer, John Leggett, Roger Lighty, Marilyn Mantei, Jim Miller, William Newman, Jakob Nielsen, Don Norman, Dan Olsen, Ramesh Patil, Gary Perlman, Dick Pew, Ken Pier, Jim Rhyne, Ben Shneiderman, John Sibert, David C. Smith, Elliot Soloway, Richard Stallman, Ivan Sutherland, Dan Swinehart, John Thomas, Alex Waibel, Marceli Wein, Mark Weiser, Alan Wexelblat, and Terry Winograd. Editorial comments were also provided by the above as well as Ellen Borison, Rich McDaniel, Rob Miller, Bernita Myers, Yoshihiro Tsujino, and the reviewers. References 1. 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Williams, G. , â€Å"The Lisa Computer System. † Byte Magazine, 1983. 8(2): pp. 33-50. 52. Williams, G. , â€Å"The Apple Macintosh Computer. † Byte, 1984. 9(2): pp. 30-54.

Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr Essay

There is no doubt that there are many similarities between Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry Thoreau though they did not live in the same century. King himself declared that he was greatly influenced by Thoreau’s essay on civil disobedient. The two civil right activists had similar ideas on justice in the society. It is also believed that Thoreau’s work was also influenced by Ralph Emerson who initiated the thoughts about transcendentalism in him. Although some people believe that King was more influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, the great Indian leader, it is important to note that the ideas of Gandhi were based on the ideas put forward by Thoreau. Moreover, King stated that while in college, he read Thoreau’s essay on civil disobedient which inspired very strong feelings on him (Arsenault, pg 62). The main difference between Thoreau and King is the context in which each one of them operated. It is also important to note that King was most vocal a century after Thoreau had left the scene. Thoreau was an author historian and a philosopher in the 19th century. One of his most famous books other than the civil disobedient essay was the Walden which had the main theme as simple living. Thoreau was also a white American since his grandfather was a Frenchman. He was opposed to the injustices against the minority in the society in the mid 19th century which included African Americans being used as slaves and the Mexican American war. On the other hand, King was a clergyman. He is considered to be the greatest civil activists in America in the 20th century. He was the leader of African Americans civil rights movement. In the mid 20th century, there was no slavery in the United States but the African Americans were segregated and discriminated by the dominant race. King mobilized African Americans in protest matches and civil disobedient as a way of fighting for justice in the society (Powell, pp 26). Despite the two activists working in different centuries, they changed the civil rights traditions of civil rights and reforms in the American society. Thoreau was the first person to introduce the idea of civil disobedient as channel of pushing for reforms in the American society. Since the publication of his essay on civil disobedient in the mid 19th century, his ideas have transformed activism in the whole world. The most famous influence of Thoreau ideas was on King’s letter which he wrote while in prison in Birmingham. In the letter, King states that Thoreau essay convinced him that not cooperating with what is evil is as essential as cooperation with what is good. This is a clear indication that King’s ideas on civil rights movement were directly borrowed from Thoreau’s ideas. The letter did not only support the idea on non violent civil disobedient in human rights protest but also expounded on the ideas introduced by Thoreau in the 19th century (Schroeder, pp 1). Thought the two activists had different views on the rights and freedom of all in the society, their views were based on the same idea. The basic idea was that the oppressed need to take an active role in the fight against their rights. They were more concerned about the unequal treatment of the minorities in the society either being enslaved or segregated. While Thoreau advocated for personalized rights, King advocated for public awareness of the freedoms and rights for the good of all (Chernus, pp 305). Though the letter from Birmingham by Martin Luther King Jr. was based on the same idea with the civil disobedient essay by Thoreau, the two authors were different on all aspects. However, this does not negate the fact that both played an important role in securing freedom for the African Americans. Thoreau aided in securing freedom for the fugitive slaves in the 19th century through his strong criticism against slavery while King led non violent protest matches and civil disobedient against the Jim Crows laws that segregated African Americans. They both held a strong position that unjust laws should be opposed by the masses (Powell, pp 26). The effectiveness of civil disobedient and peaceful direct action in the second half of the 20th century led by King was inspired by the effectiveness of the approach in India led by Gandhi. Thoreau’s ideas had been proved to be effective in India. King reintroduced Thoreau’s ideas into the American protest traditions which were very effective. The legacy of the two great men is still evident in the American society as well as other societies of the world today. It is common for environmentalists, civil rights activists and same sex marriage supporters to invoke the words of King and Thoreau to defend their positions (Powell, pp 26). It is indisputable that Thoreau in the 19th century and King in the 20th century played an important role in the fight for African American rights. They introduced the idea of civil disobedient in the American society which proved to be effective. Though both of them were radically different, there ideas on civil rights and civil disobedient were very similar.

Quantum Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Quantum - Coursework Example Consequently, LDA is generally related to functionals, which are based on HEG approximation. LDA are implemented in realistic systems measurements and calculations (for example, molecules and solids). In a general view, for a spin-unpolarized system, â€Å"LDA for the exchange-correlation energy is the following where  ?  refers to the  electronic density  and  ?xc, the exchange-correlation energy concentration, is a function of the density. The exchange-correlation energy is split into exchange and correlation terms in a linear view: thus separate expressions for  Ex  and  Ec  are defined. Separate expressions known for the correlation density lead to numerous different approximations for  ?c†. (Parr and Weitao, 1994) LDA is a part of any approximate exchange-correlation functional. Its main function is to â€Å"replicate direct results of the HEG for non-varying densities† (Parr and Weitao 1994, p. 35). As a result, LDA is often mentioned as an exp licit component of such kind of functional. The Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) Modern scientists and researchers are greatly concerned about updating GGA functionals in their implementation in molecules and solids. ... Currently, accents in â€Å"generalized gradient approximations are shifted toward the description of free-atom energies† (Perdew et al, 2008). A group of scientists, Perdew et al (2008) have transformed and â€Å"adapted the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof generalized gradient approximation that updates equilibrium characteristics of dense solids and their surfaces† (Perdew et al, 2008). It is relevant to underline that the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof is a widely-used tool in solid state calculations. Consequently, a relevant note is that PBE is currently transformed with regard to GGA implementing both the density and its gradient at every space point (Perdew et al, 2008). If to correlate both concepts GGA and PBE, it will be clearly seen that GCA counterbalances â€Å"computational efficiency, numerical accuracy, and reliability† (Perdew et al 2008, p. 4068). Moreover, â€Å"PBE refers to the demands of quantum chemistry and solid-state physics† (Perdew et al 2008, p . 4068). Modern scientists think that it is necessary to ‘widen horizons’ of PBE implementation. Thus during the last decade it has been found out that â€Å"PBE reduces the chronic overbinding of the local spin density approximation (LSDA) [1], but, while LSDA often slightly underestimates equilibrium lattice constants by about 1%, PBE usually overestimates them by about the same amount† (Perdew et al 2008, p. 4070). Moreover, another important point of PBE properties is its equilibrium properties (e.g. bulk moduli, phonon frequencies, magnetism, and ferroelectricity). The abovementioned properties are susceptible to the lattice constant; thus they are ‘overcorrected’ by PBE (Perdew et al, 2008). Moreover, in spite of the fact that LSDA defines low

Post-Globalization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Post-Globalization - Essay Example One’s personal contention of globalization is parallel with the focus on â€Å"the process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology† (The Levin Institute, 1). My search for other meanings of the term give credence to my belief that globalization consists of systems and operating processes that aim to ultimately be interrelated with global protocols on a continuously growing exchange of transactions among diverse countries and regions (Marzui, 2001, 1). As a process, globalization is more prominent in today’s generation due to technological advances that provided the impetus for improved intercultural interaction traversing borders, distance and time. The United States (US) continues to provide direction and significant influence to other countries in terms of applications on globalization. As the world’s most devel oped industrialized nation, the US has continued to support democratic ideals in terms of foreign trade, intercultural communication, preservation of the environment, adherence to ethical and moral standards, as well as promotion of human rights: all critical elements for sustained globalization efforts.

Has the recent recession around the world hit the international Essay

Has the recent recession around the world hit the international business and trade badly Especially the automotive industry - Essay Example a deal assuring to provide a colossal package to combat the impact of global recession on the automobile industry (EUbusiness Ltd 2010), it still remains to be complex phenomena as to why the recession took such a heavy toll on trade and commerce worldwide. Critically speaking, a set of entropy predicted the probable outcome of a sweeping downward surge in various cross-country economies, eventually leading to discrepancy in the ratio of production and consumption. These factors lay hidden both in the functional as well as the structural aspects of the car industry. The editor of the Dog Lemon Guide Clive Matthew-Wilson notes that the international automobile sector can produce approximately 90 million new units every year, which is well over the estimated 60 million buyers. Drawing on from this statistics, he concludes that in the aftermaths of global recession, the potential consumer market was mobilized independently by respective states – a deal which is not very likely to last forever. Hence, it is notable that the affordability factor in terms of owning personal automobiles will continue to weaken furthermore as the world starts adjusting to the ongoing slump (Dog and Lemon Guide 2010). In the light of this evidence, this paper is going to critically assess the impact of recession on international trade and commerce, particularly the automotive arena. The study will incorporate discussion of the relevant literature duly backed up by empirical evidences, followed by detailed analysis of the methodologies. Lastly, a questionnaire attached at the end of the document will reflect the research findings and provide assistance to conducting interviews for further elaboration of the methodologies. Before elaborating furthermore on the thesis question, it is worth investigating into the period that led up to the recent financial crises around the globe. It may be noted, however, that bulk of the study in this regard will focus on the US trade infrastructures and

Darwin's Dangerous Idea Discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Darwin's Dangerous Idea Discussion - Essay Example Darwin’s evolution theory paved way for the science technology to adopt new approaches to evaluate his ideas. The close match between the human DNA and the DNA of the chimps is a scientific finding that was originally approached as an idea by Darwin. In this sense, Darwin was ahead of his time. Nevertheless, I am skeptical of the idea that things really evolve into something different. I identify the change in the HUV gene with the introduction of medicine in the patient with adaptation rather than evolution since evolution has to induce permanent changes to differ from adaptation. Overall, the video was very informative and educative. I agree that survival in the ever changing environment necessitates evolution for things with DNA. Even human beings have seen this evolution in terms of the variety of races, and features. Likewise, different varieties of the same animal living in different conditions suggest that the bodies have evolved so as to adjust to their environments. For example, same animals in the colder regions are furry whereas those in the warmer areas are not. However, I differ with you on your consideration of the theories of Darwin about the relationship of all living this leading up to this breakthrough as original and unmatched; nearly 50 years before him, Jean-Baptist Lamarck who was a French naturalist had already proposed the idea of occurrence of evolution and had proceeded it according to the laws of nature. Nevertheless, I do acknowledge that his proposal of the natural selection’s idea as a means of working for the evolution was original. Yes, the scientists over the passage of time did feel empowered by Darwin’s theory since it suggested something so inherently attractive to science with complete obliviousness, if not refutation, to what is beyond the reach of the scientific eye. You have captured Darwin’s nervousness and the underlying reasons for it

Sears Auto Center Scandal Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Sears Auto Center Scandal - Research Paper Example This forced the administrators to begin to apply massive expense cuts throughout the company. Â  Many of the expense cuts directly impacted how work was performed by the auto service center at Sears locations. The salesmen and auto mechanics received a decrease in fixed wages and were instead offered a commission-based wage system that provided additional payment for specific types of parts sold and installed, as well as demanding a specific amount of these parts sold during a working shift. Employees began to concentrate on ways to make the most money instead of concentrating on the best quality for the customer. As consumers began to file formal complaints, a California audit and inspection was performed on Sears chains to discern the work involved. It was determined by government officials that the quality of work was below approved standards and the company’s employees were purposely misleading the consumers. Â  While the CEO of Sears issued statements contradicting these inspections results, the company issued changes in wage programs and earnings for the salespersons at Sears but did not change the commissions-system for auto mechanics. Chuck Fabbri, a Sears auto mechanic, wrote a letter to the U.S. Senate telling the truth about Sears’ wages program for auto mechanics and the dangers that it creates for consumers. These actions were performed by upper-level management at Sears to increase overall profits for the company as well as to provide increased earnings to company shareholders. The community was negatively impacted by these decisions because consumers were taken advantage of and misled. The government placed a 3-year probation on Sears and the company settled on nation-wide class-action cases amounting to multi-billion dollars worth. Â  

Global markets and local cultures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Global markets and local cultures - Essay Example He further states that these processes are inevitable and irreversible. He states that for those countries opposing it, it will be extremely hard for them to operate in an increasingly global world as they are to be alienated and investment drawn and taken elsewhere by the electronic herd (Friedman 106-58). He states that it just but a matter of time before this alienation chokes them forcing them to accept the rules. On the other hand Friedman states that the meaning of golden in the phrase attaches the merits that come with accepting the rules. He states that for those countries that will abide by them, huge investments will go their way thereby becoming rich economically. In regards to protests in Seattle, Friedman stated that protesters were targeting the wrong body and doing so using wrong tools. He called protesters â€Å"†¦protectionist trade unions and yuppies looking for their 1960’s fix†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Besteman and Gusterson 282). He states that W.H.O is just bu t a product of globalization and that it acts according to global rules. The current world is one without walls in form of borders, politics and other types of barriers to international relations. As such there is need to replace walls with rules that govern global relationship which brings about the roles of W.H.O.

Global Markting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Global Markting - Essay Example Franchises have sprung up to become multi-billion dollar business empires like the McDonalds franchise. Fast foods are composed local readily available foodstuff that is easy and ready to eat with minimal preparation and/or cooking. The fast food business is being introduced into regions of the world where it would not have been economically sound to do so a few years back. This is because the market for fast foods was not there, and it was undeveloped o support such endeavours. The expansion started in the Asian markets in countries like India, Singapore and Vietnam to mention just a few. Africa is now being viewed as the next frontier in almost all fronts of business from mining to technological advances, innovation and inventions. Kenya is a leading country in Africa in terms of political, economic and environmental stability that acts as a conducive environment for business start-ups and growth. Kenya is regarded as a leader in many aspects especially when it comes to considering it a location to set up a business. This is because the country acts as a gateway into the wider Eastern African region because of its port at the coast with the Indian Ocean and well-developed road network. Infrastructure is the key to business development in any part of the world because it determines the success or failure of a business. Infrastructure should be considered when setting up a business, and includes a myriad of factors that are important to a business. It is composed of both tangible attributes like roads, buildings and intangible factors like skilled labour and technological expertise. Kenya is a country that is considered an oasis of stability and peace in a region where the neighbouring countries are ravaged by various calamities and disasters. Political stability is essential for the success of any business and Kenya provides this strategically. This is terms of infrastructure and political stability that provides a calm environment for businesses to proper and break even. The country’s economy is largely based on agriculture, but there emerging opportunities for other sectors of the economy to be based on like mining. These new opportunities have placed Kenya on the path of entering into the bracket of emerging world economies like Brazil and Far East countries. Politically, Kenya is more stable than its neighbours, which can be attributed to its half a century of stable political leadership since its independence from its colonial masters the British. This has been further enhanced by the country’s adoption of a new constitution, which has placed the country among the best leaders in terms of the best bill of human rights and organs for protecting them in the constitution. Political leadership determines a country’s economic policies and they affect both external and internal business environment. Kenya’s business environment can be considered as one that is need of external or foreign investment, which expec ted to help the country exploit its newfound resources. Foreign investments are essential for a country’s development because it brings in the much-needed expertise and experience in various sectors of the economy. Political goodwill is essential in encouraging direct foreign investment in country because it is responsible for instituting and maintaining conducive economic policies. Kenya offers these attributes at a time when the region and Africa as a whole is in the public limelight as being positioned as the next big thing in

Ecosystems and Trophic Levels. Tropical Rainforest Assignment

Ecosystems and Trophic Levels. Tropical Rainforest - Assignment Example There is an estimate that approximately 20 to 86 species of trees exist per acre of these forests. Trees lies in several vertical layers named as Emergent layer, Canopy layer, under story layer, shrub layer and ground layer (Davis, 2007). So scientists consider this area as species-richest biomes on this planet that is very unique due to its complex ecosystems. Food Chain: In tropical rainforest there are hundreds of interlinked food chains those when combined result in a complex and huge food web. Tropical rainforests food chain has four levels First level is dominated by plants, fruits, leaves, planktons etc Second level is made up by the herbivores (animals which eat plants) such as insects, small reptiles, nectar eating birds and some large animals such as monkeys, apes etc. Small carnivorous animals (meat eating animals) make the third level and these include rodents, and some small reptiles. Large carnivorous animals such as snakes make the fourth level. Last and fifth level is dominated by the large dangerous carnivores such as pythons, alligators tigers etc. Symbiotic Relationships and energy transfer within various levels: Life in tropical rainforest is difficult and there is a strong competition between different species. Hundreds of species have developed symbiotic relationship with other species in order to survive in such a highly competitive environment. In a symbiotic relationship both species are mutually benefited. ... Primary producers also named as autotrophs are the only living being which use the sunlight energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates (Pipe, 2008). Then comes primary consumers, which consume autotrophs and utilize their energy for their living. In this way energy is transferred from one level to next level. In energy pyramid third and fourth level is occupied by secondary and tertiary consumers. Secondary consumer depends on plants as well as on primary consumers for their energy requirement whereas secondary consumers (carnivore) feed on secondary consumers (Davis, 2007). As energy is transferred from one level to another, it becomes lesser in amount as some energy is lost as heat energy. Indeed only 1.2% of energy is transmitted to the next higher level in this energy pyramid. Decomposers or detritivores form the last level of energy pyramid. Detritivore include bacteria, fungi and virus. And these are the organisms which nourish on dead plants and animals and derive energy by decomposing these dead bodies. In this way they change the complex organic substances of the dead bodies into their simpler form that is further utilized by the plants to synthesize their food. In this way decomposers serve as a link between autotrophs and consumers. Decomposers also serve to clean the environment (Pipe, 2008). Human interference: This valuable resource of earth is under threat due to human activities. Extension in human settlements, need for the more and more agricultural land, construction of roads and need of wood have resulted in quick deforestation of this tropical rainforest. As a result of this deforestation large area has lost its vegetative cover as well hundreds of thousands of other species that inhabited or

John Winthrop Essay Example for Free

John Winthrop Essay John Winthrop is one of the outstanding figures in American history who through their dauntless pursuit of new opportunities and staunch adherence to their ideals have won for themselves a permanent place in the national hall of fame. Born in England, he brought all his intellectual power and religious fervor to build a new country in North America. His importance as the many times elected governor of Massachusetts led Francis J. Bremer to call Winthrop â€Å"Americas Forgotten Founding Father† (Bremer, 2003). Winthrop’s decision to join the Massachusetts Bay Colony was inspired by his ardent belief that Catholic ritual was a sin for the Anglican Church and that Puritans needed to cleanse themselves of this religious practice, sheltered in a new getaway in a foreign land. Obtaining the royal charter for what seemed on the surface a purely commercial enterprise, Winthrop and other influential Puritans in 1629 set on a journey that brought them to New England. His remarkable leadership ability was recognized by his companions immediately as he was elected the governor of the future colony even before the journey. Afterwards, Winthrop was re-elected to this post 12 times in total. Winthrop’s legacy lives on in the modern-day political community. Of special importance is his famous â€Å"City on a Hill† sermon in which he proclaimed the creation of a godly community as the goal of the new settlement. It should be noted that Winthrop, for all his religious zest, was also more moderate than many of his contemporaries and allies in the demonstration of his views. In the time of his governorship, he tried to keep the number of executions for heresy to a minimum and interfered with the introduction of some of the more conservative customs as the veiling of women. John Winthrop’s contribution to the development of North American colonies as well as his lasting intellectual legacy made him a memorable figure in the US history. Bibliography Black, Robert C. Iii. The Younger John Winthrop. New York: Columbia University Press, 1968. Bremer, Francis J. John Winthrop: Americas Forgotten Founding Father. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Noll, Mark. â€Å"Founding Fathers? † First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, 140 (February 2004): 38+. Waters, Thomas Franklin. A Sketch of the Life of John Winthrop, the Younger: Founder of Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1633. Cambridge, MA: John Wilson and Son, 1899.

Compare wongs pragmatic classroom kagan kyle and scott win win discipline and morrishs real discipline Essay Example for Free

Compare wongs pragmatic classroom kagan kyle and scott win win discipline and morrishs real discipline Essay Clear guidelines on how to prepare are defined for each time of the day. Procedures are divided into periods to facilitate implementation in class. Teachers are also directed on preparation in the summer before classes start for the year. Procedures will stay the same this reduces behavior problems and keeps the focus on learning and educating. Teachers understand the boundaries of their control; the teacher can focus on being proactive to prevent problems rather than wasting time reacting to problems she could anticipate. Any teacher can implement the theory of the practical classroom without concern for over- or under-reaching with students. students’ accomplishments are pretentious by the procedures used. †¢ This philosophy has a solid positions that are shared with the students †¢ A Comparison of Discipline Models Wong’s Pragmatic Classroom Kagan, Kyle, and Scott’s win-win discipline Morrish’s Real Discipline Compare and Contrast †¢ Students are given the choose to what they feel is good for them to do. †¢ Students, teacher and parents are involved in the rule making. †¢ Help students understand each other’s responsibilities along with what the teacher’s responsibilities are. †¢ Discipline is something that the win-win problem does not do to students. †¢ Corrects the situation, which allows the students to come up better actions, which will result in acceptable behavior. †¢ According to Morrish’s real discipline children can only learn SELF DISCIPLINE through experience. †¢ Morrish further states that when children enter school they do not have the knowledge on behaving properly. †¢ With the Three theories they all have the similarity that the teachers and students are involved in the learning process of the required discipline. Strengths †¢ Students, Teachers and parents all work together to establish the rules to have a better school experience. †¢ Teachers help students behave which is acceptable behavior to their teacher. †¢ Win-win discipline is to help students develop log-term, self-managed responsibility. †¢ Morrish rewards occasionally the students for behaving correctly. †¢ Morrish gives students courage that they may not have when working through issues that are sensitive. †¢Weakness †¢ There is too much compromise between teacher and student when establishing the classroom rules. †¢ Teachers are too limited on what they can do to prevent disruptions. †¢ The program is most effective if it is implemented from the first day of school until the last day of school. †¢ Morrish overstates the role of the teacher. â€Å"The because I said so† response. †¢ Morrish believes that teachers who praise children to build up their self-esteem actually do more harm than good. †¢ Morris is against giving students the freedom to choose

Research into Truancy: Causes and Effects

Research into Truancy: Causes and Effects Introductory orientation Truancy is about learners who have not been attending school regularly as required by the school, parents and even the authorities. Truant behavior is a problem for the individual, the family, the school and society in general. Free and compulsory education is recognized as a basic entitlement under international standards, including the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Convention of the Rights of the Child (1989) and the European Convention on Human Rights (1950). With the right to free education and the obligation corresponding to this right observed and enforced through a national emphasis on school attendance, The National Statistic Office (Malta) states that in the 2004/2005 scholastic year the figure for school absenteeism accounted for 7.7% of the total number of school days in the reference period or an overall absence rate of 9.2 absent days per pupil that for boys being 10.0 days per pupil and for girls 8.4 days per pupil. As a teacher this makes me fretful about students missing school as this can be associated with subsequent emotional and psychosocial problems in early adulthood and is a predictor of multiple problems (Fogelman and Hibbert, 1990). Truancy may have both short and long term effects on society. There is evidence that truancy is linked to delinquent behaviour and juvenile crime (Collins, 1998; Reid, 1999). According to Jones (1996), ‘Absenteeism is a sign of trouble that often leads to lower academic skills and grades, delinquency, and dropouts. Studies have shown that high school dropouts are twice as likely to be unemployed and on welfare, and overall, tend to be facing a more difficult life than their graduating counterparts. Jones (1996; p.128), All members who form part of any educational institution cannot allow these students to give up on themselves. We as a modern, fast developing society, we cannot afford to let them surrender. It is clearly far less expensive to educate them than pay for a lifetime of welfare and all of the deprivations that welfare represents. These are ominous issues, which imply that the number of students who skip school is rising and that school absenteeism is a new generations behaviour that is today a dramatic social phenomenon. This proposal drafts the intent to investigate and explore realities of how truancy manifests with Maltese youth and also explore the psychosocial world of truants in Maltese schools. Problem Analysis The Pre-Scientific Problem awareness As a supply teacher for these past five years, I have witnessed incidences of truancy in the period 2006 to 2009. One of the common truancy reducation measures used was to lock the school gates during lessons and breaks and open them after school hours (my personal exsperience). Despite the limited impact on truancy reducation, the approach of locking gates is still common and evident in some secondary schools. I found locked gates while visiting some of the schools. Gangsters, to control late coming and to stop learners from dodging classes, locked gates to prevent trespassing, sepecially. Exploring the problem Incidence and nature of truancy Malta Since 1946 education has been compulsory for all children between six to fourteen years and extended to the age of 16 by the Education Act (Malta) of 1971. Maltese law imposes a duty on parents to ensure that their children of compulsory school age receive appropriate education, whether through attendance at a state or independent school. If they fail to do so, without any reasonable excuse and if found guilty, they are liable to a fine not exceeding in previous currency one Maltese Lira (equivalent to â‚ ¬2.33) for each day during which the offence continues, unless the parent fails to give a good and sufficient explanation within three days from the date he or she receives a notice from the Director of Education (Malta Education Act 1988). From January 2001 up to December 2002 there were 8,903 arraignments before the local tribunals in connection with school absenteeism (Grech, 2002). This figure represents only the number of students who were absent from school without a valid reason on more than three occasions in the time frame of a month. It is a known fact that there are a number of students that systematically plan three days off from school each month, just for the sake that they use their monthly absence allowance and knowing that in this way their parents would not receive a citation. Surveys show that the overall absence rate between 25th September 2000 to 31st March 2001 stood at 10.5 days per pupil (NSO Malta, 2001). This figure reveals an increase of 5.2% over 1999/2000 scholastic year (NSO Malta, 2001). Thus it shows that during this period, 657,604 pupil days were lost to absenteeism and authorised absence due to sickness. Indeed, the Clark Report (2005) shows concern for the increase in unauthorised absenteeism with parental consent, particularly in state secondary schools which cater, in the main, for a student population coming from a working- class background. Family problems, psychological problems, illnesses, school phobia and bullying have, significantly, been indicated by the Clark focus group to be the topmost reasons contributing to school avoidance. Some Overseas Countries Most of the research conducted abroad seems to provide information regarding the nature and extent of truancy in secondary schools. Results of a study conducted at a school in London from 1985 to 1987 revealed that 70% of the sampled pupils admitted truanting during the three-year period (Stoll, 1990:22). In the study that involved nine secondary schools, 66% of the 765 fifth year pupils admitted truanting (ibid). Figures on truancy in 150 English secondary schools revealed that 31% of pupils in years 10 and 11 admitted that they played truant or skipped lessons (OKeefe Stoll, 1995:12). Gray and Jesson (1990:25) report about the major national survey results of truancy in English secondary schools. According to this study, 23% of all fifth year pupils were involved in truant behavior and they were less likely to stay on in full-time education. Furthermore, schools facing serious problems of truancy tend to be in the inner city rather than in other areas (ibid). on the other hand, Collins (1998:26) reports that absentee rates vary between schools in the London Education Authority. Munn and Johnstone (1992:4) found that out of a sample of 50 Scottish secondary schools, 18% of the pupils (11% in June and 7% in November) were classified as truants and were mostly form the senior years. These figures exclude truants within the school day, as â€Å"14 schools reported that they did not keep period attendance records† (ibid). Truancy has long been a subject for research in various parts of the USA. According to Nelson (1972:98), 64% of the 591 students surveyed identified themselves as class truants. Learners habitually play truant each day in Los Angeles, Pittsburg and Milwaukee (Black, 1996:33). Bos, Ruiters and Visscher (1992:393) found that the average rate of truancy in 36 schools in the four Dutch cities studied was 4.4% and that truancy increased with the level of the class in almost all schools. Some researchers further indicate that truancy does not necessarily mean missing the whole day of school but found that I could be in the form of missing a part of a day or particular lesson (Kilpartick, 1998:31; Reid, 1999:91). In a study conducted by Malan in South Africa (1972:144), 2,738 out of 69,908 pupils were identified by their teachers as truants. Masithela (Masithela, 1992:33) observed that learners tend to miss lessons during the first and second periods, as well as during the last give periods. The tendency of missing certain lessons towards the end of the school day shows that some form of â€Å"hidden truancy† is prevalent and that pupils can be marked present in the register but fail to attend all lessons (ibid:45). On the other hand, they may come late and be marked absent or be somewhere on the school premises not attending certain lessons or periods, but still be marked as being present on the class resisters. Factors associated with truancy Malta Truancy is about learners who have not been attending school regularly as required by the school, parents and even the authorities. Tyerman (1968) defines the term truant as the child who is absent from school purely on his or her own initiative. Gabb (1994) includes in his definition of truant, that a child who is absent with leave given by his or her parents, or who are actually kept at home by the parents. Hersov (cited in Gabb, 1994) goes still further, dividing from truants, ‘school phobics and ‘school refusers. King (2001) furthermore defines school refusal/school phobics as a difficulty to attend school due to emotional distress, especially anxiety and depression. Fenech (1991) (in an unpublished research) defines ‘absenteeism as ‘being away from lessons for any period of time and for reasons not considered as legitimate, with or without the parents knowledge (p.3). She goes on to include ‘physical presence without any attention being given to a lesson in progress [as well as] masked or selective truancy (ibid., p.3). Fenech (ad. lib.) refers to the latter as ‘skiving off specific lessons or disappearance after registration (p.3) remarking that a number of sources consider absenteeism and truancy synonymous. Sultana (1997), like Fenech (1991), defines absenteeism as ‘staying away from school for reasons not justified by the law (p. 355). However, she goes on to include other ‘less overt ways (ibid., p 355) such as what Willis (1977) calls participating in ‘informal mobility (ibid., p. 355). This includes not entering the class for lesson, intentionally staying in another class, leaving the class without permission, or staying in class without bothering to follow the lesson. Studies conducted abroad When seen from a psychological viewpoint, truancy may be symptomatic of learns who are insecure and have low academic achievement levels and low self-esteem. Lewis (1995:37) states that attendance difficulties my broadly result from a combination of â€Å"pull† and â€Å"push† factors. Pull factors are personal and social aspects that â€Å"pull† a learner out of school. The pull factors may be related to the psychological indices mentioned by Reid (2002:11), such as maladjustment, a lower general level of self-esteem and academic self concept, anxiety and lower career aspirations. Factors that â€Å"push† learners away from school include academic and classroom aspects such as inapproachability of the teaching staff, incomprehensible teaching style and inappropriate classroom management. Other factors relating to the school and the classroom include bullying, the curriculum, boring lessons (Reid, 1999:91), teachers humiliating remarks (Porteus, Clacherty, Mdiya, Pelo, Matsai, Qwabe and Donald 2000:11), poor record-keeping and school organization (Bimler Kirkland, 2001:90; Coldman, 1995:29). According to Pappas (1996:1), truancy is often symptomatic of family dysfunction, since the parents of truants tend to be permissive, undisciplined and unavailable. Some authors believe that truancy is associated with a poor socio-economic background, including poverty, poor housing and unemployment (Bell, Rosen and Dynlacht, 1994:204; Tyerman, 1958:222). Some researchers state that there is a link between truancy and delinquent behavior (Collins, 1998:38; Brown, 1998:298-299; Reid, 1999:25). Truancy differentiated from school phobia There is a need to distinguish between truancy and school phobia. The concept â€Å"school phobia† describes a learner who is unwilling to attend school and stays at home with the knowledge of parents (Wicks and Nelson, 2000:123). A learners problem often stats with a vague complaint or reluctance to attend school and progresses to total refusal to go to school. Blagg (1992:121) asserts that school phobia may be induced by fear-arousing aspects of school, such as fear of failure caused by anxiety about meeting the standards. Fear may also be related to worries about the health and welfare of parents (Blagg, 1992:123). In the other hand, a learner who plays truant misses the whole school day or lessons without the knowledge of parents or caregivers. Furthermore, a truant tends to be involved in various forms of anti social behavior (Blagg, 1992:121). Milner and Blyth (1999:18) acknowledge the difficulties involved in studying the prevalence and pattern of truancy and in comparing current and past school attendance or absence. The difficulties are partly compounded by the variations in the definition of truancy itself (Boyd, 1999:22; Gabb, 1997:2) and the multifaceted nature of truancy (Edward and Malcolm, 2001:1; Reid, 1999:17). The problems associated with studies on truancy should, however, not prevent further research from being conducted. Solutions should be found, or the cause at least eliminated, because truancy is regarded as a serious problem with socio-economic implications. A preliminary review of the literature reveals that truancy is a major problem form schools and society and a most powerful predictor of juvenile delinquent behavior (Van Petegem, 1994:272; Wiehe, 2000). Reid (2002:2) maintains that the amount of money spent on truancy reduction initiatives proves the extent of truancy. Statement of the problem Data on the extent and nature of truancy in schools are often based on information obtained from class registers. This information may be inadequate or almost incomplete and limits the understanding of the phenomenon, thus making it difficult to develop appropriate intervention strategies. More insight on how truancy manifests is needed to provide a base on which to suggest, plan and develop effective intervention strategies. Therefore, further research is needed to enable education officials, schools, parents and other professionals to manage learners with attendance difficulties more efficiently. This study serves to bridge the information gap regarding the nature of truancy and to provide a picture of the life world of truants in Secondary Schools. Aims of the Research The General Aim The aim would be to describe truancy in general as stated in the literature and to conduct an empirical study in order to determine how truancy behaviour manifests in secondary schools and what the life world of truants looks likes. The findings can then be used to inform and guide future practice. The Specific aim The aim of the study would be to gather information that will be used to guide the school (college) community namely the SMT, form teachers, subject teachers, guidance teachers and school councillors, youth workers in school and other stakeholders to help in the interventional approaches and procedures that can be used for reducing truancy. In order to realise the above aims, the following questions are set to direct the research: What is the extent and degree of truancy in terms of the frequency and number of learns involved? What are the patterns, type or nature of truancy? Where do truants go when not at school or in class? What measures are used to monitor and manage truancy? Research Method The study will comprise two methods, namely, a literature study and an empirical investigation. A study of the literature will derive information on studies about poor school attendance and procedures employed to mange or reduce truancy from books, research articles, journals and other resources. A quantitative research design will be used in the empirical investigation. This investigation aims to gather data by means of a questionnaire that will be given to learns in Form 1 and Form 2 in eight randomly selected schools, , incorporating two Junior Lyceums, two Area Secondary and two Church schools. A qualitative research design will be used with guidance teachers, counselors, youth workers, form teachers, Assistant Head of Schools and Heads of School currently working in schools. A focus group and interviews with Heads will help me to investigate what the School community is doing to combat truancy. Such data will be advantageous in that they are ‘the most adequate [tool] to capture how a person thinks of a particular domain (Goldsmiths Collage, n.d.). More over since a face to face rapport with the interviewee, it is induced to continue questioning the subject in order to confirm the hypothesis about his or her beliefs, seeking appraise any underlying meaning in the process. Demarcation of research Due to time constraints, the preset research is confined to then 8 randomly selected secondary schools in Malta. A list of all secondary schools was compiled to allow for the random selection of 8 schools, which will form part of this study. This sample was mainl cohosen on the basis of cost implicaitons and accessibility. Explanation of concepts In this section a number of concepts that are relevant to this research are defined. Truancy Reids (1999:1) asserts that the term ‘truancy is often misused and can be applied both generically and with a local meaning. In the different parts of Great Britain, truancy is known as ‘dodging, ‘skipping off, ‘mitching, ‘skiving, ‘bunking off and ‘going missing, respectively. Whitney (1994:49) defines truancy as ‘absence that has not been authorized by the school and where leave has not been given or approved. Another definition provided by Collins (1998:2), who states that truancy is about pupils who have been registed with a school but identified as not attending school when the law says they should. This definition includes absences from a particular lesson or lessons, known as ‘post-registation truancy (Gabbs, 1994:5; Stoll, 1990:23). Clark Report (2005) identify as truancy when a student is voluntarily absent or not attending school without their parents permission and often, awareness (Anglicare, Werribee Family Services 2000). Truancy is defined as unjustifiable or unexplained absence from school with attempts by the student to conceal the absenteeism. Usually the child avoids home when not at school and the parents are often unaware of the childs absence (Rollings, King, Tonge, Luk, Heyne, Ramsdell, Burdett Martin, 1999). The concept blanket truancy refers to absence from the whole school day, which is usually reflected on the class register, while post-registration truancy occurs when the learner is marked present but fails to turn up at a lesson or lessons (Stoll, 1990:23). In this research, the term ‘truancy is broadly defined as unauthorized absence from school. The definition is adopted with the assumption that absence with the knowledge and permission of the school and parents or guardians does not constitute truancy. Since the study seeks to explore the type of truancy as manifested at secondary schools, both concepts of truancy (blanket and post-registration) are relevant and will be investigated. A Truant A truant is a ‘child aged 6 17 years old who absents himself or herself form school without a legitimate reason and without permission of his or her parents or the school official (Schaefer and Millman, 1981: 335). For the purpose of this research, a truant refers to a learner who, after being registered at a school, absents himself or herself from school or lessons without a legitimate reson or permission from parents or the school official. The traditional or typical truant: Traditional truants tend to be isolated that come from an unsupportive home background, possibly with a tendency to be shy. It is likely that they will have a low self-concept, be introverted and be the citim of their social circumstances. The psychological truant: could be the school phobic (school refusal) case but more othen than this psychological truant miss school for psychological related factors such as illness, opsychomatric complaints, laziness, a fear of attending scholl for any reason (such as dislike of a teacher, a lesson, an impending confrontation or fear of bullying.) The Institutional truant: Institutional truants are more likely to indulge in ‘on the spur of the moment absences from lessons and to be selective about days or lessons to miss. Secondary School A school that admits or registers and educates learners in Form 1 Form 5 is known as a secondary school. Life World In this research, the term ‘life world refers to the psychological context this is made up of elements such as interpersonal aspects, the family, school and the broader community. According to this definition, the life world involves the personal and external world of the learner. The personal word refers to intrinsic factors. The external word is made up of the broader educational systems, the home environment and the community where the child spends his time when not at school. Relevant intervention strategies would be easier to suggest if the contextual issues related to the phenomenon under investigations are understood. Research Program The research comprises give chapters, as follows: CHAPTER 1 In this chapter, the background information in the seriousness and implication of truancy are discussed. The chapter also includes an analysis of the problem, the problem statement, aims of the study, description of the research method and definition of the concepts. CHAPTER 2 Chapter 2 entails a review of the literature on types of truancy and the causes of truancy or contributing factors in different countries, including in Malta. Different approaches that the various countries and schools use to manage truancy will also be discussed. CHAPTER 3 This chapter deals with research designs and methods. A discussion of the research problem, the aim of the empirical investigation, the research tool used in the study and the selection of the sample will be included. Details of the compilation and administration of questionnaires as well as an analysis of data will be presented. CHAPTER 4 In this chapter, the results of questionnaires will be presented. The results will be analyzed to find answers to the research questions. CHAPTER 5 The chapter entails a summary of the research finding, conclusions and recommendations. A summary of the results from the literature study and the limitation of the study will be included. Conclusion This chapter focuses on the background and analysis of the problem, as well as the aims of the study. An attempt will be made to explain the research method used, relevant concepts and planned programmes of the research. The next chapter will contain the review of the literature on the types of truancy, factors contributing to truancy behavior, the rate and extent of truancy and the strategies used to manage truancy. CHAPTER 2 TYPES OF TRUANCY, CAUSAL FACTORS AND APPROACHES USED IN THE MANAGEMENT AND REDUCTION OF TRUANCY Introduction According to Tyerman (1958:217), truancy has been a problem to all concerned with education since 1870s. Approximately 750 children were charged for truancy in England and Wales in 1954 (ibid: 220). This figure could have been an underestimation as it was based on learners who were referred to courts, and therefore represented mainly incorrigible truants (ibid). Furthermore, the figure gives a general picture of truanting children in one country only and without an indication whether it was absence from certain lessons or whole school day absence. Truancy is currently a problem in communities. In Clarks report concern was expressed about truancy among school children. Data presented in this report indicates that non-attendance exists, and has become an issue of increasing concern for schools, educational and student welfare organizations. Non-attendances viewed as being among one of the key problems facing some schools. There is increasing concern for the seemingly large number of ch ildren and young people, who are, for a range of reasons, missing out on the benefits of education and possibly on a better future (Dr. L. Galea, The Times 9th February, 2005). Non-attendance can be the beginning of countless problems for students who regularly miss out on school (Heyne, King, Tonge, Rollings, Pritchard Young,1999). The extent and nature of truancy are best understood in terms of whether it implies absence for the whole day or during a particular lesson. This chapter deals with how blanket and post-registration truancy manifest, the causal factors and various measures of reducing truancy in secondary schools. Blanket Truancy Perspectives in various countries England and Wales Normab (2001:49) states that 50,000 children play truant on a normal school day in England. The number of truants increases steadily with age and most truants are found at secondary school (ibid). This confirms past research findings about the existence of truancy in secondary school in some parts of England. Gray and Jesson (1990:25) gathered information on the incidence of truancy from the youth cohort survey of England and Wales. The result of their survey shows that 6% of final-year secondary school learners reported to have played truant for several days or weeks at a time. Malcolm, Wilson, Davidson and Kirk (2003:50) state as follows: ‘In 1999, the Audit Commission noted that at least 40,000 of the 400,000 learners absent from school are truanting. Scotland In a study done at 50 Scottish secondary schools, it was found that 30% to 33% of learners had been playing truant at least once in the survey week (Munn and Johnston, 1992:38). These schools were requested to provide both the overall attendance rate and the numbers of learners (ibid). Australia Haddon (1996:110), citing a comprehensive study conducted in Victorian secondary schools in Australia, states that 40% to 60% of learners of compulsory school age reported that they engaged in truancy. Cohen and Ryan (1998:12) state that about 10,000 learners in Tasmania play truant at least one day a week. The Netherlands The research done at 36 schools in four Dutch cities indicates that the average level of truancy at all schools was 4.4% (Bos, Ruiters and Visscher, 1992:393). The average percentage of allowed absence was 4.7%, therefore suggesting that learners in most schools are just as often absent with a valid reason as without one. United States of America It appears that truancy is a problem in American schools, although at varying levels. According to Black (1996:33), approximately 2,500 and 4,000 learners play truant on a daily basis in Pittsburg and Mulwaukee, repectively, while 300,000 of the 1.6 million students in Los Angeles are habitual truants. This shows that some learners stay absent without permission every day and that a day never goes by with a recording of 100% attendance. Truancy is so much of a concern that the Department of Education has prepared a manual that gives schools some guidelines on how to reduce it (United States Department of Education, 1996). Malta From January 2001 up to December 2002 there were 8,903 arraignments before local tribunals in connection with school absenteeism (Grech, 2002). This figure represents only the number of students who were absent from school without a valid reason on more than three occasions in the space of a month. It is a known fact that there are a number of pupils that systematically take three days off from school each month just for the sake that they use up their monthly absence allowance and knowing that in this way their parents would not receive a citation. Survey results issued by the National Statistics Office Malta on December 16, 2002 showed that overall absence rate from schools between September 25, 2000 and March 31, 20001, stood at 10.5 days per pupil. That included both absenteeism and authorized absence (such as those due to sickness). During this period, 657,604 pupil days were list to absenteeism, accounting for 8.9 per cent of the total pupil days. This reveals an increase of 5. 2 per cent over the 1999/2000 scholastic year. Absences in government schools stood at 19.12 days per pupil whereas that of government dependent (church schools) and independent private schools was 5.76 days per pupil. The rate of truancy in terms of gender Some of the overseas researchers state that there is no difference in the levels of truancy reported for males and females (Gray and Jesson, 1990:26; Haddon, 1996: 110; Smith, M., 1996:226; Stoll, 1994:36; Whitney, 1994: 59). Recent research on truancy in the seven local education authorities reports that the numbers of learners in secondary school admitting truancy was almost equal for boys and girls (Malcolm et al., 2003:31). Coldman (1995:68) also states that the variation that exists in truancy levels of males and females is slight. It is, therefore, apparent that some research are in agreement with regard to the truancy levels of male and females learners. Earlier research that was conducted in South Africa suggests that more males than females tend to play truant Coldman (1995:68) warns against making assumptions and generalisations about the existence of gender differnce in truancy levels. He argues that observed findings might result from the fact that some schools have more males than females, particularly when one is dealing with a large sample. What the above studies suggest about truancy levels of males and females is that the difference might be slight, if it does exist. Furthermore, observed diffrenences may be incfluenced by other variables, such as the enrolled number of male and female learners in a sample. Truancy rate according to the geographical location of the school Serious truancy is said to be more prevalent in inner-city secondary schools in England (Gray and Jesson, 1990:36; Stoll, 1990:23). Munn and Johnstone (1992:4) also found that the Scottish school with the highest percentage of unauthorized absence was all in the inner city. Coldman (1995:69) asserts that claims that truancy is a problem mainly experienced in inner city schools are disputable, since another survey showed that the truancy level is high even in the suburban, rural and industrial areas of England. It may therefore be purely speculation, without much supporting evidence, to suggest that inner-city school experience higher levels of truancy. Hard evidence needs to be gathered, where possible, in order to verify the claim that inner-city experience higher rates of truancy. According to some researchers, truancy levels also appear to differ from school to school, since they may be more prevalent in schools than in others (Blackm 1996:33; Bos et al., 1992:385; Gray and Jesson, 1990:26; OKeefe and Stoll, 1995:12). It is therefore apparent that the levels of truancy seem to vary from country to country, and in some cases, also in terms of geographical locations within a city or town. The literature indicates that blanket truancy is common in many secondary school and that, in some cases, learners play truant on a daily basis. The levels of blanket truancy can also vary according to regional locations within the same country. In the next section, the evidence regarding the level of post-registration truancy drawn from the literature will be discussed. Post-registration Truancy Very little information is given in the literature about national trends of post-registration truancy in countries where research on truancy was conducted. Most of the studies conducted in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United St Determinants of Health: Area of Residence Determinants of Health: Area of Residence Lisa Theaker The overall health of an individual and of communities can be defined and affected [LF1]by many factors. Circumstances and environment play a massive part in determining whether a Person or Persons can be categorised or labelled as being â€Å"Healthy†. Some of the more common of these determinants are issues such as area of residence- the affluence and prosperity of the general area, the income of the individual or family unit, the levels and standards of education available within the area, social relationships and at the most fundamental level, genetics also play a part. From a social perspective, factors such as access to good quality health services are considered to be a secondary factor and have less of an impact on the individuals’ health than the others. A person’s health is often determined by issues such as their social and economic environment, their physical environment and their general behaviours and lifestyle choices. An individual only really has control over one of these factors – the lifestyle as it is of their own choosing whether they have a healthy diet, if they smoke or drink alcohol. This too is determined to some extent by the level of social, physical and economic factors (WHO, date unknown) (Naidoo et al, 2000). Income and social status or class differences are displayed in statistics from different areas and often show direct correlation to the health of the individuals within them. A better income and â€Å"higher class† proves to be critical in better health. This is due to better quality of diet, access to education and better working environments. Studies have shown that where the greater difference in income between richer and poorer individuals exist, then this is reflected and evident in the statistics of health (Naidoo et al, 2000). Education levels at a lower standard are also linked with poor health. People with a low level of education often have low self-confidence and are found doing lesser paid yet more manual labour in health affecting environments such as factories. This also affects stress levels as well as income. The knock-on effect this produces brings inequalities such as poor housing and unsanitary living conditions in what are commonly labelled as â€Å"deprived areas†. All the factors affecting these communities have a profound effect on the health of not just the individual, but of their families also (BBC, 2008). The physical environment often impacts upon the health of families and individuals [LF2]alike, both in a domestic and workplace. Areas of residence with good quality road networks, decent acceptable housing, safe water and clean air [LF3]are statistically proven to show greater levels of better health of residents than areas with heavy industry, both now and historically. Air pollution is a major contributor to ill health, especially if the individual has an underlying or pre-existing health condition such as asthma. People who live and work in cleaner environments are often generally healthier, or display less health issues than people working within these area of heavy industry. Workers in heavier industries such as coal mining and steelworks have no control over they’re working environment, and although health protection equipment such as dust masks and ear protection are now issued as standard, this has not always been the case and generations of workers have suffered some times horrendous health issues from diseases and conditions associated with working in the dusty, noisy conditions for many years unprotected. Cases of emphysema, a lung condition where essentially the lungs are filled with dust which eventually hardens, have[LF4] affected many generations of coal miners (WHO, date unknown). Social support networks in communities are also proven to show links to improved health. Areas with community support outlets that offer help and advice with aspects covering stop smoking services, job-seeking and educational courses can encourage and offer the means to people within the community to improve themselves both mentally and physically and this has a profound effect on their health by improving their prospects and their self-esteem (WHO, date unknown). The genetic makeup of an individual can also be a major contributing factor to their health and can determine possible lifespan, overall healthiness and the possibility of developing certain illnesses. Personal behaviours of lifestyle can be influenced at an early age, where a parents input on the diet and lifestyle habits are often impressed upon children from a very early age. These attitudes are often carried into adulthood from children having witnessed the un-healthy practices of parents, and assume them to be acceptable and normal. Factors such as smoking and the consumption of alcohol are some of these. General coping skills can be witnessed by the nest [LF5]generation and can often lead to problems with their own coping mechanisms later in life (BBC News, 2008). Access to health services are a fundamental factor too. Good accessible health provision is essential for the maintenance of health within communities – whether the individual chooses to access these available services is down to their general attitudes to their own health (WHO, date unknown). Lifestyle choices such as smoking, drinking, promiscuity and a balance of healthy diet and exercise are in the hands of the individual. These choices are also determined by the levels of income and area of residence. Deprived areas, even within the same general locality and country statistically show that this is the case. For example – Calton, an area of Glasgow in Scotland, shows a distinctive rise in the mortality rates in males when compared to a more affluent area of Lenzie. A baby boy born in Calton will have an average life expectancy of 28 years less than a boy born and resident in Lenzie. This is explained by Calton simply being less affluent. The population of Calton are generally of a lower social class, and the mortality rate reflects this amongst males of comparable ages. This is not just in Scotland however, similar findings have been reported in areas of London. The life expectancy varies by 11 years from residents of affluent Hampstead to St Pancras, which is c onsidered to be less affluent (BBC News, 2008). [LF6] People from lower classes experience greater levels of sickness and ill health, whether this is from lifestyle choices or work environments (if they actually work). Work and employment levels are a very important factor to consider. The work environment determines income levels and can directly affect the health of the individual. Some work environments are considered to be â€Å"high-risk† because of accidents, hazardous materials or even stressful situations (WHO, date unknown). A very detailed and thorough discussion of determinants of health however this could be strengthened by creating greater links to the models of health. There are more factors to the determination of â€Å"Health† than reviewing and [LF7]considering the technical issues of income, employment, lifestyle and the areas where people live, although these are statistically proven to have a major impact. Many would consider that ill health of an individual comes about as a direct result of lifestyle choices and that by adequate and improves healthy lifestyle promotion campaigns, theses can make a difference and encourage the individual to make changes and be responsible for taking steps to improve their health and that of their family. This is not always the case however, when the truth maybe that the individual has little or no control over the choices to be made. This serves to strengthen the argument that ill health is not in the hands of the individual rather that its roots lie in the social and economic domain. If the means are not available to make the changes, then it is impossible to do so. It is true however that some people do make the effort to maintain their health and that of their families eve on sometimes limited income however the social environment of poor quality housing and the air around where the live prevents them from doing so. The air quality is beyond the control of anyone. These factors are major contributing issues. Regardless of the input of any health promotion campaigns and any amount of income, this cannot be changed – other than to provide the means to move their family to a less polluted environment. Ill health does not occur merely by bad luck. The imposing factors from birth and through the entirety of an individuals’ life, through to their demise are paramount to affecting how these years are spent, whether in good or bad health. Social factors such as class and ethnicity come into play when tied in with the universal factors of age and gender. The gender, ethnicity and age of the individual cannot be changed, however it is possible that the social class can be altered given the right circumstances. Environmental factors such as housing provision, and the quality and area of it are also major factors – the area of residence and the amenities that are offered there, such as leisure facilities and access to health services have an impact upon the health of the residents. Lifestyle factors such as smoking, nutrition, exercise and the psychosocial environment are also major factors. The amount of stress and worry experienced by the individual are paramount to the levels of the other factors. Smoking levels increase in stressful environments as does overeating (Naidoo et al, 2000).[LF8] References BBC News (28th August 2008) ‘Social factors key to ill health’ [online] Available at: http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/7584056.stm [Accessed 5th April 2014] Health Poverty Action (date unknown) ‘ factors that Determine Good or Poor Health’ [online] Available at: http://www.healthpovertyaction.org/policy-and-resources/the-determinants-of-health/ [Accessed – 5th April 2014] Naidoo, J Wills, J. (2000) ‘Health Promotion – Foundations for Practice’ (2nd edition) London, UK: Harcourt Publishers Ltd World Health Organisation (date unknown) ‘Health Impact Assessment – The determinants of health’ [online] Available at: http://www.who.int/hia/evidence/doh/en/ [Accessed – 5th April 2014] Bibliography Health Poverty Action (date unknown) ‘The Cycle of Poverty Poor Health’ [online] Available at: https://www.healthpovertyaction.org/policy-and-resources/the-cycle-of-poverty-and-poor-health/ [Accessed – 5th April 2014] The College of Occupational Therapists (COT) (2013) ‘Social Determinants of Health’ [online] Available at: https://www.cot.co.uk/social-determinants-health [Accessed 5th April 2014] Very good range of sources used. [LF1]Is this the ‘Introduction’ section? [LF2]Is this the ‘Discussion of Findings’ section? [LF3]You are right but need to clarify what is meant by these i.e., give the parameters [LF4]‘has’ [LF5]‘next’ [LF6]Excellent points and use of example/source [LF7]Is this the ‘Conclusion’ section? [LF8]An excellent conclusion – very well thought out! Well done! However this should have been in report format!