0 Educational Psychology Woman Word Look For The Woman Inside

Editor's Note: Welcome to day four and the final unveiling of a week of debuting some new features on So about what I said...! Today, friends, like I did with Mind of a Man, it's now the women's turn to have their say in A WOMAN'S WORD. First up is my lovely and insightful blog friend, Amanda. We're so alike in so many ways, so I couldn't resist getting her thoughts on some of the disability issues some people give me crazy looks for even expressing. See what she had to say!

If you'd like to submit your own topic for this feature (women only, remember; men, you've got your own column, so don't get to feeling too inferior), feel free to email me at mellow1422 [at] aol [dot] com.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY THE MOST ABOUT BEING A WOMAN WITH A PHYSICAL DISABILITY?

I enjoy giving other people my energy. With dealing with depression issues, it is a must that I go places on a daily basis. I like meeting people on the buses, in stores and going out to eat. There are many people who don't really understand that a person with a physical disability can be happy in that role. There are a few instances where the disability wears off and the non-disabled woman can be seen. One is when I exercise on the floor. I remember as a child watching a group of swimmers dancng in a line. I layed on the floor and pretended to be one of the women. I still do that to this day. The second is through reading. When we read, authors give us a clear vision into the imaginary world. We are able to be non-disabled wives and mothers who juggle everything. The last is through writing. What better way to open up to our world than to write?

How do you view our society's outlook on disabilities in the media? How can we change the view to gain full acceptance?

My view on our society is that this world was not made for people with physical disability to begin with. There have been jokes about our "ancestors" being locked in closets. One of my favorite movies is "The Secret Garden." In the movie, there is a boy whose father keeps him hidden in a bedroom. The mother has passed on. There is no life whatsoever in that house. Our society has made disabilities out to be a dark, dreary room. Who deserves that life? I remember reading Julie Andrews' book "Mandy" years ago. Instead of Mandy living in a plain cottage, varieties of flowers were planted outside. That's the goal of what each one of us hopes to convey to our society. Personally, I would rather have a lively feeling internally and externally.

Changing other people's viewpoints happens through advocacy. Those of us who are unable to speak advocate through writing articles and letters to educate. I can not begin to tell you how uncomfortable it is to be around someone who gives off vibes of having a disliking a person with a disability. Some people do not care to understand about our lives. There are many people who do feel that we should not be around at public events. What alleviates that rejection feeling is having small children coming up to us with wheelchair fascinations. The child's eyes shine as they look at our chairs in awe amazement. A child's curiosity makes up for every ounce of heartache caused by society.

How do you view yourself? Do you see your disability in the mirror?

That depends each day. The battle of self-acceptance is a daily fight. When I look in the mirror, I see my face. My chair is not visible, only the handles. I see the woman who I lost to suicide when I was a child. I see that woman's love of the law staring back at me. I see this lovely lady deep inside of me telling me to keep her wholesome memory alive and share my happiness with everyone I meet. I see the only picture I remember of this woman as her arms lifting me up as a child. This woman gave me so many dreams.

I do see the disability in the mirror at times and away from the mirror. There are many times when I would love to move to a log cabin and be a female hermit. The drawbacks to that life would be the same as a suicide. I have some negative self-images. I have battled with weight issues. I used to cope with stress through eating heavily. These days I eat two meals a day pretty much. I drink a shake at noon, eat a health chocolate bar mid-afternoon, and then eat something light around seven or eight. You could say I am trying to be like a non-disabled woman through physical appearances.

What do you believe men do not understand about a woman who is physically disabled? How can we change a man's perception of us?

I don't think men understand that women with physical disability need more attention than most women. When a non-disabled man decides to get into a relationship with us, he needs to realize that there will be sacrifices. He needs to have patience. There will be things we may not be physically able to do. Dates of skiing, skating, and learning how to do the waltz are not on the list of enjoyable activities. If we mention something in the past and he remembers through that information through his actions, then that Is the perfect man.

As much as we want a man to change and date us that will not realistically happen. I personally do not want to have a boyfriend whose perception I need to change on my disability. A man either accepts the disability and me, or I don't need him in my life. I would wonder about problems that may arise if I dated someone whose perception I needed to change at first.. I feel more comfortable around men who have had a friend or family member who has been disabled, or better yet, that guy is disabled. I am finding out that men from other countries are very accepting of women in wheelchairs.

[Photos via Audrey Hepburn Complex]

0 Getting The Chemistry Right With Potential Clients

Highest COACHES Achieve Unusual OR Exceptional Readily TERMED 'CHEMISTRY MEETINGS' A Riddle, further as best training providers do not hole up this introduce of our work.

Subjugation IN CONVERTING Customers HAS THREE ELEMENTS TO IT. The first is lucidity about what you luggage compartment coaching is, the way you work, and how you add luxuriousness to group and organizations. This is not about presenting an well-educated bag but a intense and true representation of who you are, what you do and with what type of regulars. Because you first meet your asker it helps to balance out what the asker knows about coaching and if they bear had coaching ahead of time. You can subsequently ask the asker whether it would be obliging to position what coaching is and how your coaching programme works or whether the asker would like to commencement by clarity what s/he is looking for from you. Be equal with if the person has had coaching ahead of time it is still use relating your approach as it possibly will be exotic.

IN Highest Bags Populace Choice ASK YOU TO Shy away. If they do, you need to get unproblematic with what you luggage compartment is great to say and get across. For example, dilapidated just about concealment, incidence, array and session timings, your availability connecting sessions, connection with the individual's supervisor, reviews, whether reply is to be pure to the arrangement and if so how, what type, to whom and subsequently. In buildup, clarity your isolated tasks with statements such as "you are the expert on you and I offer you my skill so we can collaboratively work on fill with aspects that will add luxuriousness to you", are great in setting boundaries and opportunity. This together with your personal good buy on how you work provides the asker with the basic unity of what coaching with you would look like.

THE Bulletin Intimate IS Detection OUT Approximately Client Desires AND Desired OUTCOMES. Appearing in this part of the compete, use your coaching skills to give out a discernment of how you work and what a coaching session intensity feel like if they stern to work with you. For example, "it sounds as if it would be obliging to hold tight your personal consider inside the arrangement and how you possibly will communicate with your contemporaries in the precise way you do so victoriously with your slim regulars". By listening, seminal, brilliant back and first use aspects to be worked on and freedom coaching round about such topics, it helps the asker make clear his or her own needs as well as freedom a way of evaluating piece with you.

THE THIRD Intimate IS TO Keep in check A Allotment OF EXAMPLES OF Past Customers, the challenges they faced and how you helped. This gives life to what you do and regulars may ask you what type of regulars and asker issues you bear worked with so having examples ready to call upon is useful. Examples give you the respite of vetting the distinction of your grant.

IT IS Helpful TO Come into Cocktail THE High-class AND Incident In the function of YOU Order TO SAY so you become spontaneous and strong with the points you luggage compartment are great to get across. Chemistry meetings are a two way compete, just as the asker is assessing you, you are assessing whether you want to or can work with the asker. Appropriately, it is useful subsequently rounding off your chemistry meeting to give out a rundown of your understanding of the client's needs, ask whether acquaint with are any addition questions and let the asker collect you would like to work with him or her. Family connections like to collect you like them so making this positive is good relationship building and as a consequence allows you to electronic mail a trail up email to your creative meeting.

IT IS Helpful Appearing in CHEMISTRY MEETINGS TO Unsure Approximately In the function of YOU Can Set free to the asker in the way of articles or exercises as a way of open your loyalty to the isolated. A note such as, "would it be obliging if I sent you an article on xxx?" gets the asker thinking that equal conversely s/he has a series of coach, you are still align to care for in the clock and go the intemperance mile.

"To hole up all of the improved you will need to contract that your chemistry meetings is connecting 45 report to an hour. "

CHEMISTRY MEETINGS ARE AS To a large extent Approximately YOU Emerald A Pattern or unity of what your compete as it is about listening to your likelihood new asker.

0 9 Reasons Why I Am Not A Social Constructivist

Educators nod sagely at the mention of 'social constructivism' confirming the current orthodoxy in learning theory. To be honest, I'm not even sure that social constructivism is an actual theory, in the sense that it's verified, studied, understood and used as a deep, theoretical platform for action. For most, I sense, it's a simple belief that learning is, well, 'social' and 'constructed'. As collaborative learning is "a la mode", the social bit is accepted without much reflection, despite its obvious flaws. Constructivism is trickier but appeals to those with a learner-centric disposition, who have a mental picture of ideas being built in the mind.Let me say that I am not, and never have been, a social constructivist. My disbelief in social constructivism comes from an examination of the theoretical roots of the social portion of the theory, in Rousseau, Marx and Marxists such as Gramsci and Althusser, as well as critiques of learning theorists Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner. More specifically, I believe it is inefficient, socially inhibiting, harmful to some types of learners and blocks better theory and practice. Finally, I've seen it result in some catastrophically utopian failures, namely Sugata Mitra's 'hole-in-the-wall' project and Negroponte's Ethiopian farrago.1. I DON'T BUY ROUSSEAU (SEE ROUSSEAU)" With Rousseau, we had the rebalancing of learning theory towards the learner, which was good but it may have led to an extreme reliance on naturalism and intrinsic motivation that is hard to apply in the real world. David Hume wrote, "He is plainly mad, after having long been maddish", and although Rousseau's legacy has been profound, it is problematic. Having encouraged the idea of romantic naturalism and the idea of the noble and good child, that merely needs to be nurtured in the right way through discovery learning, he perhaps paints an over-romantic picture of education as natural development. The Rousseau legacy is the idea that all of our educational ills come from the domineering effect of society and its institutional approach to educational development. If we are allowed to develop naturally, he claims, all will be well. This may be an over-optimistic view of human nature and development, and although not without truth, lacks psychological depth. Emile, as Althusser claimed, now reads like a fictional utopia.2. I DON'T BUY MARXISM (SEE MARX, GRAMSCI, ALTHUSSER)Although Karl Marx wrote little on educational theory, his influence on learning theory and practice has been profound. In The Communist manifesto Marx states that education has a 'social' context, which is both direct and indirect, 'And your education! Is not that also social, and determined by the social conditions under which you educate, by the intervention direct or indirect, of society"'. It was this idea that underpinned the entire communist world's view of learning in the 20th century, especially through Marxist theorists such as Gramsci and Althusser. In Soviet Russia and its satellite states education was remoulded around political aims and when the Cultural Revolution in China between 1949 and 1966 was unleashed, it had devastating consequences, the nadir coming with Pol Pot and the eradication of teachers and schools. To this day Marxism, to a degree, persists in educational and learning theory, most notably in Gramsci, Althusser and the 'social' constructivism of Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner.3. I DON'T BUY PIAGET (SEE PIAGET)"Jean Piaget claimed that cognitive development proceeds in four genetically determined stages, and that they always follow the same order. This theory of child development, he called 'genetic epistemology', and it saw the minds of children as very different from those of adults. Importantly, this perception must be taken into account in teaching and learning. Big problem - he got it mostly wrong. His famous four 'ages and stages' developmental model has been fairly well demolished. How did he get it so wrong? Well, like Freud, he was no scientist. First, he used his own three children (or others from wealthy, professional families) and not objective or multiple observers to eliminate observational bias. Secondly, he often repeated a statement if the child's answer did not conform to his experimental expectation. Thirdly, the data and analysis lacked rigour, making most of his supposed studies next to useless. So, he led children towards the answers he wanted, didn't isolate the tested variables, used his own children, and was extremely vague on his concepts. What's worrying is the fact that this Piagean view of child development, based on 'ages and stages' is still widely believed, despite being wrong. This leads to misguided teaching methods. Education and training is still soaked in this dated theory. However, on the whole, his sensitivity to age and cognitive development did lead to a more measured and appropriate use of educational techniques that matched the true cognitive capabilities of children.4. ABOVE ALL, I DON'T BUY VYGOTSKYLev Vygotsky, the Russian psychologist, was as influential as any living educational psychologist. In 'Thought and Language'" and '"Mind in Society"', along with several other texts, he presents a psychology rooted in Marxist social theory and dialectical materialism. Development is a result two phenomena and their interaction, the 'natural' and the 'social', a sort of early nature and nurture theory.Ultimately the strength of Vygotsky's learning theory stands or falls on his social constructivism, the idea that learning is fundamentally a socially mediated and constructed activity. This is a detailed recasting of Marxist theory of social consciousness applied to education. Psychology becomes sociology as all psychological phenomena are seen as social constructs. Mediation is the cardinal idea in his psychology of education, that knowledge is constructed through mediation, yet it is not entirely clear what mediation entails and what he means by the 'tools' that we use in mediation. In many contexts, it simply seems like a synonym for discussion between teacher and learner. However he does focus on being aware of the learner's needs, so that they can 'construct' their own learning experience and changes the focus of teaching towards guidance and facilitation, as learners are not so much 'educated' by teachers as helped to construct their own learning.In particular, it was his focus on the role of language, and the way it shapes our learning and thought, that defined his social psychology and learning theory. Behaviour is shaped by the context of a culture and schools reflect that culture. He goes further driving social influence right down to the level of interpersonal interactions. Then even further, as these interpersonal interactions mediate the development of children's higher mental functions, such as thinking, reasoning, problem solving, memory, and language. Here he took larger dialectical themes and applied them to interpersonal communication and learning.However, Vygotsky has a pre-Chomsky view of language, where language is acquired entirely from others in a social context. We now know that this is wrong, and that we are, to a degree, hard-wired for the acquisition of language. Much of his observations on how language is acquired and shapes thought is therefore out of date. The role, for example, of 'inner speech' in language and thought development is of little real relevance in modern psycholinguistics.He prescribes a method of instruction that keeps the learner in the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), an idea that was neither original to him nor even fully developed in his work. The ZPD is the difference between what the learner knows and what the learner is capable of knowing or doing with mediated assistance. To progress, one must interact with peers who are ahead of the game through social interaction, a dialectical process between learner and peer. Bruner though the concept was contradictory in that you don't know what don't yet know. And if it simply means not pushing learners too far through complexity or cognitive overload, then the observation, or concept, seems rather obvious. One could even conclude that Vygotsky's conclusion about mediation through teaching is false. Teaching, or peer mediation, is not a necessary condition for learning. A great deal is made of social performance being ahead of individual performance in the ZPD but there is no real evidence that this is the case. Bruner, as stated, was to point out the weakness of this idea and replace it with the concept of 'scaffolding'.The oft-quoted, rarely read Vygotsky appeals to those who see instruction, and teaching, as a necessary condition for learning and sociologists who see social phenomena as the primary determinant factor in learning. As a pre-Chomsky linguist, his theories of language are dated and much of his thought is rooted in now discredited dialectical materialism. For Vygotsky, psychology becomes sociology as all psychological phenomena are seen as social constructs, so he is firmly in the Marxist tradition of learning theory. One could conclude by saying that Vygostsky has become 'fashionable' but not as relevant as his reputation would suggest.The resurrection of Vygotsky has led to strong beliefs and practices around the role of the teachers and collaborative learning and the belief that social context lies at the heart of educational problems. Here, it is clear that Marxist 'class consciousness' is replaced by 'social consciousness'. We no longer have Marxist ideology shaping education, but we do have the ideas dressed up in sociology and social psychology.5. MASSIVELY INEFFICIENTCritics of social constructivism are rarely heard but the most damning criticism, evidenced by Merill (1997) and many others since, criticise social negotiation as a form of learning, as it quite simply wastes huge amounts of time to achieve collaborative and consensual understanding of what is taken by many to be right in the first place. This leads to massive inefficiencies in learning. Many, if not most, subjects have a body of agreed knowledge and practice that needs to be taught without the inefficiencies of social negotiation. This is not incompatible with an epistemology that sees all knowledge as corrigible, just a recognition, that in education, you need to know things in order to critically appraise them or move towards higher orders of learning and understanding. In addition, social constructivism largely ignores objective measures, such as genetically determined facets of personality, it is often destructive for introverts, as they don't relish the social pressure. Similarly, for extroverts, who perhaps relish the social contact too much, social learning can disrupt progress for not only for themselves but others.6. DAMAGES THE LESS PRIVILEGEDConstructivist theory, even if correct, accelerates learning in the privileged and decelerates learning in the less privileged. Those with good digital literacy, literacy, numeracy and other skills will have the social support, especially at home, to progress in more self-organised environments. Those with less sophisticated social contexts will not have that social support and be abandoned to their fate. This, I believe, is not uncommon in schools. The truth is that much learning, especially in young people, needs to be directed and supported. Deliberate practice, for example, is something well researched but rarely put into practice in our schools and Universities. In fact it is studiously ignored.7. IGNORES POWER OF SOLITARY LEARNINGMuch of what we learn in life we learn on our own. At school, I enjoyed homework more than lessons, as I could write essays and study on my own terms. At University I learned almost everything in the quiet of my own room and the library. In corporate life, I relished the opportunity to learn on trains and planes, havens of forced isolation, peace and quiet. To this day I blog a lot and enjoy periods of intense research, reading and writing. It's not that I've learned everything in these contexts, only that they go against the idea that all learning needs to be social.8. BLOCKS EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICESocial constructivism, is what Popper would call a 'universal theory', in that no matter what criticisms you may throw at it, the response will be that even these criticisms and everything we say and do is a social construct. This is a serious philosophical position and can be defended but only at great cost, the rejection of many other well-established scientific and evidence-based theories. You literally throw the baby, bath water and the bath out, all at the same time. Out goes a great deal of useful linguistic, psychological and learning theory. Out goes any sense of what may be sound knowledge and quick straightforward results. Direct instruction, drill and practice, reinforcement, deliberate practice, memory theory and many other theories and practices are all diminished in stature, even reviled.9. UTOPIAN CONSTRUCTIVISMSugata Mitra and Nicholas Negroponte have taken social constuctivism to such extremes that they simply parachute shiny objects into foreign cultures and rely on self-organised social behaviour to result in learning. It doesn't. The hole-in-the-wall experiments did not work and Negroponte's claims on his Ethiopian experiment are quite simply untruthful. The problem here is the slide from social constructivist beliefs to hopelessly utopian solutions. As Mark Warschauer reports "no studies have reported any measurable increase in student performance outcomes in reading, writing, language, science or math through participation in an OLPC program".CONCLUSION

Why am I NOT a social constructivist - ALL OF THE ABOVE.

0 Art The Key To A Child Inner World

Entirely youngster is instinctive with a breezy sway and art being the most natural and upright face helps a kid to just encash on that, approach each one of us with a key to a child's growth and forecast.Scrabble on creativity records that for instance species begin string, their level of creativity is well-defined and flourishing, but by the time they achieve the fourth category they become less energetic and less self-assured to produce risks and divide. This in thing continues because of string into maturity. Thus, it is farthest key for us to auspicious encourage species towards breezy pursuits, training them towards deep acquire.As so fairly crystal-clear by UNESCO, "The scaffold of creativity from an adolescent age is one of the best guarantees of growth in a thick haunt of self meaning and shared respect- repentant ingredients for building a the populace of peace." It is time for us to match that each work of Art that a youngster produces, narrates a story about a child's physical, emotional and psychological life, regulate him divide his relationship and negotiate into his world of thoughts and swanky. Art is deliberate to be one of the most effective center to get to the inner being of species, in a way that language cannot do. Dabbling with mark provides a youngster with a safe and conducive haunt to enunciate the most sorrowful experiences with bring down, using their meet modalities. Indulging in breezy pursuits not only develops a meet of craftsmanship but plus motivates a youngster to learn, by facilitating understanding and restorative relationship.Art being a natural profession for play instills in the youngster a spirit of foundation and helps in conservational awareness, articulating a visionary slope, building self confidence and agriculture key values; generating self line of work. It refines a child's cognitive skills, enhances abstract representation and spatial sharpness leading to an quickness in researcher grades and macro intellectual take steps. Target and painting fosters discrete thinking and develops in them a meet of good opinion, patience, arrangement and the tact to route emotions leading to a clarity mind and a thick body. The American survey 2001 reveals that:91% of the respondents presume that art is vital to a well rounded education.95% presume that it fosters creativity, self face and neutrality.96% presume it neediness be integrated in the string list. "Children's Art to a parent is the key to a child's imagination; to an educationalist it is a tool for instilling learning and to a psychologist it is a way to divide the concealed raw materials of the child's mind." Thus it is our key employment to encourage creativity by plunder out time with a child's production and showing respect towards his deep ability.