Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Social sciences

List the 6 Areas of Teacher Knowledge (Richards, 1998)

1. Theories of teaching

2. Development of teaching competences and skills

3. Content knowledge of the different subjects

4. Psychopedagogical and didactic knowledge

5. Knowledge of the school context

6. Practical knowledge

Specific Knowledge for English Teachers

Specific knowledge, often gained through experience, is crucial for effective teaching. According to Richards, skilled English teachers should excel in:

1. Selecting learning activities

2. Preparing students for new learning

3. Presenting learning activities

4. Asking questions

5. Checking students’ understanding

6. Providing opportunities for practice of new items

7. Monitoring students’ learning

8. Giving feedback on student learning

Why is Lesson Planning Important?

Lesson planning... Continue reading "Essential Teacher Knowledge and Lesson Planning in English Language Teaching" »

Agenda Setting

Agenda setting describes the news media's ability to influence the salience of topics on the public agenda. *Agenda-setting theory* was formally developed by Max McCombs and Donald Shaw in a study on the 1968 American presidential election. When the media focuses on just a few issues and subjects, the public tends to perceive those issues as more important.

Priming

Priming is the process in which the media attend to some issues and not others, thereby altering the standards by which people evaluate election candidates. A number of studies have demonstrated that there is a dimension of powerful media effects that goes beyond agenda-setting.

Framing

Framing is related to the agenda-setting tradition but expands the research by focusing... Continue reading "Understanding Media Influence and Voter Behavior in Elections" »

Social media: Pros/contra: The technologies which allow us to share information, pictures and ideas among others things are what we call social media. However, one thing is sure that social media has become an integral part of the lives of people of all ages today. Therefore, it is important for all to understand the advantages as well as disadvantages of social media in order to make the right choice for themselves.

:) Social media has made communication a lot more easier than ever before. Now, with a touch of a button people could communicate with anybody any where in the world. Websites such as Facebook makes communication with others an easy task. Social Networking makes it possible to reach many people in a very short time. This has led... Continue reading "The Impact of Social Media on Youth: Pros and Cons" »

Analysis Process Framework

When analyzing a company, we should divide the analysis in two points: External and Internal. The focus of these analyses is to find their main Strengths, Weaknesses (internal analysis), Opportunities, and Threats (external analysis). After research we can finally build our SWOT analysis of the company.

External:

• Trends = PESTLE - allows the company to make specific choices when planning the company's future, from how the brand should be presented, to any changes within the structure of the company's organization, to the development of new products.
• Sector = Porter’s 5 forces - Analytical model used to help identify the structure of an industry, and to help companies determine their competitive strategies.

Internal Analysis:

Multilingualism

Multilingualism is the ability of individuals to use more than two languages in their everyday life. It exists when multiple languages coexist and are necessary for communication. These languages may have different statuses, such as majority or minority languages, both within the community and internationally. Some languages are primarily used in private domains, while others are used in public domains like work or school.

Factors Influencing Third Language Acquisition (TLA)

Four factors can influence TLA:

• Sociolinguistic Context: Opportunities for language exposure, attitudes towards language learning, the status of different languages in society, and time devoted to different languages at school.
• Psycholinguistic Processes: TLA

Possibilities for Integration

Use the Work in the Language Class to Work in Other Subjects

For example, if the children make a survey in the English class to use the expression “by car”, “by bus”, etc., they can use the information in the mathematics class to make diagrams, schemes, etc.

In this way, we are relating language with the content in other subjects, which provides the language with a double value.

Use the Techniques in Other Subjects to Improve the Language Class

For example, the teacher makes questions in English in the mathematics class, questions like “who is wearing jeans?” “who is wearing a T-shirt?” “who is wearing jeans and a T-shirt?” that they will organize in diagrams.

Then, the information will be worked... Continue reading "Integrating Language Learning Across Subjects: Strategies and Benefits" »

Terrorismo

Terrorism is an international problem in today's global community. Many nations are affected, whether directly or indirectly. Most nations oppose terrorism, while others condone or even support active, brutal terrorism and terrorist groups.

Terrorism is defined by the US State Department to contain four elements. The first is a threat of violence or an act of violence. Next is a political objective. Third is that violence and threat of violence is a direct attack on civilians making civilians a primary target. Lastly, it is perpetrated by a supporting a nation or nations of terrorism.

Two examples of terrorism and non-terrorism are: the bombing of the US Embassy in Dar-Es-Salaam and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.... Continue reading "The Global Issue of Terrorism" »

Confrontation:

In this stage, it is focused on winning/losing, forcing the positions against the counterpart, the positions are inflexible, the parts have little time to resolve the problems, so the negotiation will be easier for me, due to the power control that I have. Example: “Mr. Ballmer expressed a belief that Microsoft and Nokia could innovate more quickly in the mobile market if their products were produced by a single company, Microsoft”

Subordinated:

In this stage, the company is submitted to the interest of the other party, it tries to get something from the situation, it is a conflict without an exit, and I have to accept it. One party can make a concession. Example: “The future is likely to be relatively grim for employees