Staff Guide on Assessment and Moderation

Staff Guide on Assessment and Moderation Purpose The purpose of the assessment and moderation staff guide is to ensure: All staff are aware of the moderation activities requirements All staff are aware of the assessment requirements; adheres to the quality standards (i.e.: fair, valid and consistent assessment) expected from external parties (e.g.: NZQA) Policy This policy will be achieved through planning and implementation of an annual Moderation Calendar, and regular analysis of assessment results.ÂÂ   Findings and action plans from moderation activities will be implemented and monitored by identified parties Procedure The Programme Leader will be responsible for managing the expectations and delivery of internal and external moderation activities; which includes and are not limited to a. completing an annual Moderation Calendar for the department b. monitoring action plans developed to address findings from moderation activities c. implementation of action plans, where required d. the day-to-day running and requirements of the Moderation Calendar e. monitoring and/or reporting any risks identified from moderation activities to the Academic Board Key responsibilities Programme Leader Prepare Annual Moderation Calendar to include pre-,post-, and external moderation requirements Identify any assessments requiring amendment after post-moderation Summarise results of annual moderation activities and record key learnings Identify moderators required and assign moderators for stages of moderation Nominated Moderator Carry out moderation activities as requested (pre-, and post-) Complete moderation and reports to be submitted to Programme Leader Teaching Staff Discuss planned moderation activities and nominate moderators Complete review of assessment materials Complete amendment of assessment materials with consultation with Programme Leader Policy Quality Indicators Moderation activities are planned and carried out according to the annual Moderation Calendar Assessments submitted meet the quality standards (i.e.: fair, valid and consistent) expected from external partied[AG1] (e.g.: NZQA) Part 2: Personal Reflection Moderation is comprised of a set of procedures designed to ensure quality assurance through monitoring and evaluation of assessments (The Skills Organisation Incorporated[AG2], 2014). The characteristics of moderation activity include fairness, validity, reliability, consistency, sufficiency and authenticity (The Skills Organisation Incorporated, 2014). The five different types of moderation will be discussed below. In addition, a reflection form personal practise of some factors that can have an impact on the type of moderation will also be discussed. Internal pre-moderation Why: This is carried out by nominated internal moderators to ensure the validity and sufficiency of assessment materials prior to being used by learners (The Skills Organisation Incorporated, 2014). Any actions identified following this activity must be implemented, reviewed and moderated prior to being used by learners. Review of factors and issues: In my[AG3] experience, this is a crucial process which requires time and attention, to ensure for the validity and sufficiency of assessment materials. The responsibility is with the moderator to ensure he or she is knowledgeable of the learning outcomes, the assessment requirements and assessment materials. Internal post-assessment moderation Why: This is carried out by nominated internal moderators to ensure there is fairness, validity, consistency and authenticity displayed by the assessor of the assessment materials (The Skills Organisation Incorporated, 2014). Review of factors and issues: This process can be used to ascertain if the learning has occurred for students. In my experience, internal post-assessment moderation requires a sample of highest, middle and lowest graded assessments. This is to ensure there has been consistency in the assessors judgement in allocating marks for the assessments. This is also an opportunity to gain an insight into the students learning progression. However, there has also been times that an assessor has received the feedback and/or suggestions from the action plans in a negative manner, creating an environment that is less conducive. There has also been times whereby there has been leniency from the moderator due to sympathy or the fear of causing offence to the assessor. Such behaviours can have serious consequences[AG4], relating to both the quality of the assessments as well as the integrity of the process. Peer moderation Why: This is carried out to ensure there is consistency between assessors within the same department and/or organisation (The Skills Organisation Incorporated, 2014). Review of factors and issues: In my personal experience, peer moderation can create a perception whereby an assessor may feel targeted[AG5] due to the feedback provided. Often, an assessor may feel like he or she needs to be able to justify his or her decisions, which can lead to an environment that is less conducive. On the other hand, peer moderation can also be a very useful process whereby assessors are given an opportunity for wider collegial discussion, which can assist with learning and further understanding of the assessment materials. External pre-assessment moderation[AG6] Why: This is carried out by nominated external moderators to ensure there is fairness, validity, consistency and authenticity displayed by the assessor of the assessment materials (The Skills Organisation Incorporated, 2014). Any actions identified following this activity must be implemented, reviewed and moderated prior to being used by learners. Review of factors and issues: As previously identified, this is a crucial process to confirm assessment materials are fair, valid and consistent with the required standards. The moderator is required to have sufficient understanding and knowledge of the learning outcomes, assessment requirements and assessment materials. External post-assessment moderation Why: This is carried out by nominated external moderators to ensure consistency, validity and reliability of assessment between Tertiary Education Organisations, Government Training Organisations, Industry Training Organisations and schools are being maintained (The Skills Organisation Incorporated, 2014). Review of factors and issues: The findings from post-moderation can be useful in ascertaining if the learning[AG7] has taken place, as this provides evidence of learning outcomes being achieved by learners. This further solidifies the characteristics required by moderation, for example, authenticity. References The Skills Organisation Incorporated. (2014). Moderation. Retrieved from http://skills.org.nz/assessment__moderation/moderation

Kate Chopins The Story of an Hour :: Kate Chopin The Story of an Hour

Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Kate Chopin was a Victorian writer; whose writing manifests her life experiences. She was not happy with the principles of the time, because women had fewer rights, and they were not considered equal to men. Afraid of segregation from society, people lived in a hypocritical world full of lies; moreover, Kate Chopin was not afraid of segregation, and used her writing as a weapon against oppression of the soul. Marriage was an oppressor to Chopin, she had been a victim of this institution. Being a victim of marriage, Chopin's "Story of an Hour," is an expression of her believe that, marriage is an institution that oppresses, represses, and is a source of discontent among human beings.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mrs. Mallard loved her husband.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  She wept at once This was her first response to the news of his death. She would not had grieved over someone she did not love. Even in the heat of her passion she thinks about her lost love. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked safe with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. Her love may not have been the greatest love of all time, but it was still love.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Marriage was not kind to Mrs. Mallard, her life was dull and not worth living, her face showed the years of repression. If she did love this man, why was marriage so harmful to her? Marriage was a prison for her There would be no powerful will bending her in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature. Marriage oppressed her, she needed freedom, freedom to grow and do what she wanted to do, and marriage took that away from here. Chopin didn't believe that one person should take away another's freedom.

New England Vs Chesapeake :: essays papers

New England Vs Chesapeake Early English colonies in America hardly resembled the union of men and women that would later fight against England and build a new country. In fact, until the mid-eighteenth century, most English colonists had very little, if anything to do with the settlers in neighboring colonies. They heard news of Indian wars and other noteworthy events, not from the colony itself, but from England. The colonies in the New World appeared completely different and the prospect of any unity between them seemed impossible. The colonies in New England and the Chesapeake exemplify the many differences in the culture and lifestyles of the settlers, created mainly because of the fact that their founding fathers had held separate intentions when they came to the New World. The New England and Chesapeake colonies were both settled by immigrants from England, the New England colonies being founded by the English from East Anglia, an area in eastern England. Though this was an area thriving with small towns that they had generally liked, they decided to flee England due to religious persecution. Hundreds of families, men, women and their children, came in search of a New World where they could practice their beliefs freely. They founded colonies such as Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island as model Christian societies. Their cities upon the hills were guides, the lanterns, for those lost in the darkness of humanity, as John Winthrop meant by his famous statement. They formed a society of strict religious participation, actually very much resembling their homeland. In the beginning, many called themselves Puritans, and kept things very simple and plain, concentrating on what was important to them. They used the community to achieve t heir goals, building new towns and enjoying the social aspect of their religion. At the same time, they were committed to remain working hard to keep their community productive. They believed the â€Å"idle hands† were the devil’s workshops. An issue that really defined a split between the societies was the slavery conflict. The northerners in New England held true to their belief that every man shall be equal and no one should be enslaved, while the southerners in the Chesapeake area strongly believed in the use of slavery. At the same time the New Englanders worked to help end slavery by preaching to others about the injustices, they worked diligently to make education in their society strong.

Organisational Behaviour: A Case Study Essay

Question one. Learning is a process of adapting to a change of behaviour or the ability to alter one’s way of acting as a result of influence from constant practice or experiences (Michas and Berry, 2000). Learning can either be viewed as a process or as a product of an already completed process. As a process, learning is viewed as a transformation of behaviour or a change in the mental state of an individual while as a product, learning is studied under the basis of various learning theories. The learning theory seeks to explain how and to what extent such a change is bound to occur. This theory is very essential in organisations because it helps to create high level professionals at the workplace. Depending on the situation and the willingness of the workers, different organisations can apply different learning theories at different times. Three main perspectives of this theory are known. This include behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism. Behaviourism focuses mainly on the physical aspects of learning. According to Miller and Pace (2006), a change in behaviour is not influenced by the individual’s emotions or personal motives but rather, it is a lasting change in behaviour which occurs when triggered by a change in the surrounding environment. This approach has been found to yield changes such as discrimination, associations among other skills which do not require in depth internal processes. For instance, from the case study given, Diane’s behaviour changed when she started working at La Maison where the environmental factors taught her to be hard working and efficient in her work. Cognitivism perspective deals with matters linked to the brain-system. In this case, a learning process involves the internal processes which includes how the mind receives, organises, stores and retrieves data or any information received. It concentrates on the mental aspect of the the leaner’s thoughts, beliefs, ideas and attitudes towards the organisation. This approach of the learning theory has been in very helpful in explaining the intricate forms of behaviour which involve reasoning, solving problems and processing data to alter ones behaviour (Niederhausler et al, 2002). In the case study, this kind of learning theory is seen when a worker’s behaviour in an organisation are influenced by factors such as manager’s attitude, organisational culture among other factors which are not visible physically. The constructivism approach on the other hand views learning as a process of constructing new ideas and concepts. It is more or less the opposite of behaviorism in that it focuses on how an individual molds a certain form of behaviour emanating from past knowledge or experiences. From the case study, the constructivism kind of learning approach is evident where we see that Diane had learnt from previous experience how to give fast and quality services to the customers by balancing several plates on her arms. This was a positive kind of behaviour which ensured faster delivery much to the satisfaction of her customers. In an organisational concept, there are specific qualities associated with learning or change of behaviour in organisations. This depends on what is learned, how and when it is learned. Different organisations differ in their methods of learning mainly due to the fact that every organisation represents a collective combination of individuals from different backgrounds and more so, it consists of a units which have different roles and values which they use to achieve their future goals (Billett, 2007). According to Prange (1999), it is the individuals who learns and not the organisations which they work for. In this case, he argues that learning is a process which primarily takes place in the human brain. Another argument put forward by Perkins (1997) says that even though learning may take place in organisations, it is not always positive. That is, not all organisations learn well and in a way which is bound to propel their future goals into the right direction. For instance, different workers in an organisation may hold different views concerning the organisation’s future success depending on the kind of leadership style deployed in the organisation by its leaders. The three perspectives of the learning theory, behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism have several strengths as well as weakness on the workers of an organisation as observed from the case study given. The behaviourism concept of the learning theory has an advantage in that, every worker has a clear and concise goal which he or she is set to achieve and thus any change in the environment can stimulate its achievement automatically. However, this approach has been criticized in that the workers may at times encounter a situation in which the right stimulus do not occur thus hindering the achievement of the desired goals. For instance, if the workers in a hotel are used to responding to a certain stimulus such as tips in order to work effectively, the efficacy would sharply drop ones the tips cease to exist. For the cognitivism approach, the learners are trained to work in a certain way consistently with or without a stimuli. This is advantageous in that it avoids inconsistencies in the work place and ensures customer satisfaction t all times. On the other hand, this may be disadvantageous in that the workers mind may become accustomed to doing the same thing such that it may be very difficult for them to adapt to any slight change in the organisation. The constructivism approach is useful in that the leaner is able to adapt to many changes which may occur in the organisation based on previous situations. However, this approach has a major drawback in that it in some situations, divergent thinking may cause problems in the organisation. From the case study given, Diane the learner has a change of behaviour which is affected by the change in the environment or the climate created by her boss which makes her strive to do every thing in a perfect way. However, when she is quarreled, her attitude changes and she starts to do things in a slow inefficient manner. In this case study, a positive aspect of cognitive learning theory is also seen whereby, Diane’s behaviour is influenced by the high tips she gets from the customers and this motivates her to work harder even when the motivation she is getting from her boss is very minimal. In addition, it can also be deduced from the case study that all the workers at the La Maison where Diane works are taught how to work under pressure and work with excellence. This behaviour has been shaped by the workplace culture of practice from the instructions given by Godot their manager. This reflects a constructive learning approach. Question two. From the case study, the environment and the authoritarian leadership style exercised by Godot the manager of La Maison has a great impact on the behaviour of the workers and Diana in particular. From the organisational culture which emphasises on excellence and team-work, Diane behaviour was immediately inclined towards working to her best potential since the beginning which ensured that she did a good job. However, her behaviour changed when she was quarreled by the boss and she decided to work slowly and her efficiency was greatly reduced. Other factors which helped to shape Diane’s behaviour include the tips she got from the customers which motivated her to work more in order to get more tips. This forced her to go back to her efficient working pace even when her morale had really been put down by her boss. Many positive and negative reinforcements, punishments and extinction forces which may be used by Godot and his customers may be identified from the case study. Among the positive reinforcements used by Godot include his dedicated and industrious attitude towards his work which motivated the workers to put more effort in their work. His vision and the culture of team-work which he emphasised on also made the employees to work together to satisfy all the customers. However, Godot had very bad emotional outbursts and tempers which negatively affected the workers’ efficiency. For instance, after putting so much effort, Diane felt discouraged due to the fact that her boss did not even notice her hard work but instead, he was very quick to quarrel her when she committed a simple mistake. The insults he hauled towards the workers when the restaurant was crowded and they were unable to keep pace with the high number of customers also lowered the workers’ morale. In terms of punishments, Godot believed in punishing the workers when they went wrong by imposing fines to pay the price of their mistakes. This made the workers to feel angry and disappointed thus become less efficient in their work. As a good manager, Godot can improve the worker’s efficiency through complimenting them for their hard work and correcting them in the right way where they go wrong instead of insulting them. In addition, he should strive to improve his relationship with his workers in order to motivate them. The positive reinforcements acquired from the restaurant customers include good compliments to the workers and tips in terms of money for their efficient services. Negative responses such as less tips when the services were less efficient also helped to motivate Diane to work harder in order to please them and get more tips. Thus, by being appreciative, the customers helped to shape the behaviour of the workers in a positive way. Question three. The various reinforcements and punishments discussed above had a positive as well as a negative impact on Diane’s behaviour. For instance, when Diane dropped a bowl of bouillabaisse, she was fined the price of the bouillabaisse and the cost of cleaning the carpet she stained, as a punishment for her mistake. This made Diane feel very angry, disappointed and confused and as a result, there was a visible decline in her performance. This was a very negative impact on Diane’s behaviour. On the other hand, Godot’s industrious and dedicated type of attitude helped to shape Diane’s behaviour in a positive way in that she became very dedicated and efficient in her work much to the satisfaction of the customers and this conferred an overall benefit to the restaurant. The customer’s appreciative nature and the compliments they gave to Diane helped to motivate her more to work with greater efficacy. When the customer’s tips dropped, she was forced to go back to her original working pace in order to please the customers. This positively shaped her behaviour as it taught her to be hardworking and committed in her work at all times regardless of her boss’s attitude. Question four. Hourly pay rates and tips from customers especially in restaurants have proved to be very effective in reinforcing positive behaviour in workers. The hourly pay rates motivate the workers to work for long in order to maximise their pays and thus ensuring that high productivity at the workplace is achieved. The tips on the other hand inspire the workers to work extra hard in order to satisfy the customers who will in return give them larger tips. If the services are of poor quality, the customers are unsatisfied and they thus do not feel obliged to give tips to the workers. In the case of La Maison restaurant studied above, the hourly pay rates of $15. 0 offered plus the tips from the customers proved to be very effective in shaping Diane’s behaviour as well as that of other workers. The tips averaging around 20 percent per day motivated Diane to work harder because she knew that better the services meant more tips for her. When her efficiency in services declined, her tips also went down by almost half and this forced her to step up her pace in order to get back to where she originally was. In this case, it can be deduced that the use of hourly pay rates and tips can help an organisation to make more money because of the high quality services delivered by its workers. Conclusion. From the case study above, it is clear that every organisations has a great role to play in shaping the behaviour of its workers. An organisation can either have a positive or a negative impact on the attitude and behaviour of its workers depending on the kind of leadership style practiced by the leader and also the culture of that particular organisation. It is therefore upon the leaders to adopt the right kind of leadership which is geared towards cultivating a positive attitude in their workers as this will help them to work harder and maximise the profits incurred by the organisation.

After Graduation

Going to college is just the first step in way to achieve goals in life ,so it depend on the person and how much he can gain of skills and experience to begin Incision his own way in the practical life. it was once said â€Å"One person believes in his ability and insisting on achieving its objectives, stronger than 99 people not only have wish list†. What that essay is talking about is first where I will be in five years from graduation . The second point is my personal office of the Interior design in ten years after graduation.Finally My real goal in the practical life which I wish to achieve in 20 years after graduation. After five years of graduation I can see myself in the field of Interior Design has gained experience and skill of the engineering office I work in so that I could gain fame, expertise and experience in practical life and give me the ability to incision my own way. For example ,it is possible to start with working in engineering office where I can gain mon ey and fans to start my own project and built my way.Ten years after graduation I will be able to open my own project either a partnership or personal project in this field and the prosecution of all new and all developments in the field of Interior design. For example, I can begin the project by partnership with a compatriot or with a businessman who can support me by the money than I work to develop and increase the expertise of employees in the office and choose the best engineers to work on to get the trust of customers to spread fame office at the level of the capital and then at the level of the whole state to become one of the best office interior design.After twenty year after graduation I could see myself reaching my real goal which is managing my owe big and famous company of decoration . For example, I will build a company in the manufacturing of furniture and everything that have a relished to decoration with unique design from the best designers around the world with ne w innovations and unfamiliar. To conclude my talk i think that if the person worked hard in collage to gain a lot and learn a lot and support his goals by determination and hard work can turn its goals from just a targets into reality.

Realism, the Portray of Women Mistreatment

Realism, the Portray of Women Mistreatment In the 19th century a new trend of writing appeared in the American literature called, realism and it is defined as the â€Å"faithful representation of reality'. Writers attempt to document life as it â€Å"without romantic idealization or dramatization† and â€Å"character is more important than action and plot†. Two short stories are representative of realism â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† and â€Å"The Story of An Hour. † In these stories Charlotte Gilman and Kate Chopin characterize women who are being dominated by a manly society nd who do not see women more than a simply spouses or mothers.However, they are faithful believers that women in reality are beings that should be allowed to express themselves because they are strong enough to stand for themselves; and should not be subordinate in any marriage. Likewise, in these two stories the realism portrays the maltreatment of women in their marriage, which clea rly can be seen develop in the plot, characterization, setting, and theme of the stories. The works of realism are present in the plot of both stories. Throughout the story of â€Å"The YellowWallpaper† her husband John treats the protagonist with a lot of authority and demand. â€Å"John says if I don't pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall†¦ But John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad. (Gilman, 86-90. ). And this overwhelming treatment carried the poor woman to a deep insanity, making her hallucinate about the paper design of her room. â€Å"It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper!It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw†not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old oul, bad yellow things†¦ Through watching so much at night, when it changes so, I have finally found out. The front pattern does move†and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. † (Gilman, 95, 96. ). The husband's controlling attitude and low ignorance against her destroyed this woman mental stability.At the same time in â€Å"The Story of An Hour,† Mrs. Mallard thought that the death of Mr. Mallard would be the opportunity or her to get out from an oppressed marriage that didn't let her live the life that she ever dreamed. For the first time in her life, she could visualize herself without the control and pressure that her marriage gave her. â€Å"There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully†¦ But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely.And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome. † (Chopin, 66-67. ). In these two stories we can see the great desire of these women to be treated with res pect; a ense of dignity for what they are, something that would make them feel like their voice counted rather than having a meaning to their life because of who theyre married to. Moreover, the women of these stories are truthful realistic characters. The narrator of â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† it is a docile, â€Å"ordinary' (Gilman, 85. middle class woman who suffered from a â€Å"temporary nervous depression† (Gilman, 85). She is forbidden to work and writes in her Journal, which she enjoys very much. She is also torbi dden to take care ot ner newborn baby and visit any triends, making ner eel like no control over her life. â€Å"Am absolutely forbidden to â€Å"work† until I am well again†¦ â€Å"There comes John, and I must put this away, †he hates to have me write a word†¦ And yet I cannot be with him (baby), it makes me so nervous†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ (Gilman, 85-87-88. ).The main character of this story is an oppressed woman, who could not e scape from her reality and in real life a vast of women around the world go through this kind of situation. For instance, my mother is one of them, for many years she undergoes from a temporary nervous depression, caused by my little brother's birth. My father labeled himself a very wise man, but never looked for the help she needed to. As well, he prohibited her to work and the only thing that she could do was to take care of house's chores.Couple times in my life I saw my own mother in the edge of the madness that her monotony life and my father little comprehension about her illness carried her. I remembered, myself scare at her and crying because I did not understand why she behaved in those manner and why my father was so authoritarian with all of us; and with so low emotion about my mother situation. One day my mother woke up from her dream and decides that she had to take control of her life and run away from him, leaving my little brother and me in his cares.I strongly belie ved that many women around the world, most of the time married the wrong man, because they cannot understand them and do not make them feel valuable as their marital partner. On the other hand, in â€Å"The Story of An Hour,† Mrs. Mallard is another typical middle class woman that has â€Å"loved her husband sometimes† (Chopin, 67. ), but with a â€Å"certain strength†(Chopin, 67. ) that all she anted is to â€Å"drink a very elixir of life†, (Chopin, 68. ). And who suffers from heart problem, that probably her outrage marriage had left her with â€Å"Knowing that Mrs.Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble†¦ † (Chopin, 66. ). In fact, Mrs. Mallard is an intelligence woman with a great desire of living her life without any attachments and a visionary woman that proved that she did not need any man to stand up for her. As an illustration, Mrs. Mallard story is similar to my cousin Birmania's story. She is also a very intelligent woman, who m arried her boyfriend whom she was for a long time. After the wedding, they got a beautiful house, equipped with a lot nice furniture. Her boyfriend (now her husband), as soon they got married prohibited her to work.At first, she was happy with the idea because she used to love him and she wanted to play a wife's roles. Times passed and her monotonic life started hit her and her husband's behavior was not what she dreamed about, she felt she wanted to escape from him and divorced him. He, otherwise did not accept her idea, he thought that could not be possible because he had always give her all the material thing that she ad wanted; house, money and car. But, in reality she needed more than that. Birmania needed more emotional attention; she wanted to work, to be herself, once for all.Eventually, how many women nowadays are yet bowed in the oppression of their marriages? As well as the plot and characterization, these two stories share realistic settings. Both take place in the Unite d States during the 19th century and fully described the surrounding of their main characters. For example, in the â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† the story take place in a summer's house, specifically in the narrator's room. She does not have lot furniture on it, except for a bed, the barred around the window and the â€Å"queer† (Gilman, 85. ) yellow wallpaper. I'm really getting quite tond ot the big room, all but that horrid paper†¦ It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should Judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls. â€Å"(Gilman, 87-88. ). Consequently, â€Å"The Story of An Hour† happened in the Mrs. Mallard's house mostly in er room, where she sat in a chair to contemplate the outside windows landscape and dreamed about her future. She sat with her head thrown back upo n the cushion of the chair†¦ A dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection. â€Å"(Chopin, 66-67. ). The ironic reality in the settings of theses stories is that even though the environment illustrated for these women were a comfortable life, nice houses and neighborhood, deep inside of themselves, their hearts were screaming to be understood as well as heir need of a sense of freedom. Above all, the themes in these stories are the reflection of real struggle of women in their marriage.Even though it is not explain in the story, Mrs. Mallard perhaps had to encounter a lot discouragement and affliction in her marriage in order to feel that only with Mr. Mallard death, she would be free. A sense of freedom that was stronger than the sadness she felt from this news. â€Å"Free! Body and soul free! † She kept whispering† (Chopin, 68. ). Today, despite of a lot of women, they don't feel treated, as they wanted by their spouses; they continue in ilence, struggling in their marriage enduring maltreatment and restrained themselves from the pleasure of doing what they dreamed one day for their life.However, in â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† the woman did not have a voice, she loved her husband too and appreciated all what he did for her, she suffered to know that whatever she said or did was never enough for him. â€Å"John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him†¦ I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all ver the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But John would not hear of it. (Gilman, 86- 87. ).For this woman to feel underappreciated by her husband, may have been more depressing than her own nervous condition. It is fair to say that the themes of this story it is also relate to the fact that many women in all culture s of our society, become victims of their circumstance, and they lose the control of their life when their husbands do not look at them as human beings that are capable of going beyond of their genders' identity. For the most part, the characters in both of tories go along in the theme of discouragement in their marriage.To conclude, â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper and The Story of an Hour† we now agree that the realism is shown in the plot, characterization, setting, and the theme of both stories. Also, we can see that both characters share the same concerned to their reader, they want women around the world to have self-expression, freedom to be themselves. They believed that women, not only deserve a good house and furniture, but they do also deserve respects. Gilman and Chopin with these work portray themselves as faithful believer n women ‘capacities and do not support any physical or mental mistreatment to them.

Ampex VTR organization Essay

After the second world war, the introduction of televisions opened way for the technological innovation of video recording. In the 1950s, there were major inventions in the video recording industry in the US and Japan. This case study involves the technological advancement in the video cassette recorders (VCRs) manufacturing industries. Six pioneering companies will be considered, namely; RCA and Ampex of USA, Japan Victor Company (JVC) and Sony, Toshiba and Matsushita all of Japan. JVC, Sony and Matsushita had the competitive advantage of management in this industry. They emphasized on opportunities that were more rewarding, productively positioned their technical efforts and executed these efforts in more productively. These companies learnt the market technological demands for videocassette recorders and produced in mass at limited costs. To prove their technological competence, these firms produced equipment with utmost sound clarity and consistently adhered to this. JVC was under pressure to come up with a common standard for its products which led to the advent of VHS system. RCA engineers came up with a video recording machine moving a narrow tape very fast past magnetic heads. At Toshiba, a recording head was made to rotate fast while the tape moved past at relatively slow speed (helical scanner). Despite these efforts, Ampex was the first to come up with a commercial video recorder. This VTR technology was patented but was soon shared out to other companies like RCA. Ampex failed to come up with a manufacturing capability for mass production despite the high performance designs. Ampex engineers opened up the helical scanner technology for broadcast recorder but Sony, JVC and Matsushita overtook them in this technology. RCA suggested the introduction of a television magnetic tape player but this was not considered by the management until later in 1958 in the design of VTR. Sony did not employ the method of market research but instead chose to insist on high technology and innovation. In 1950, Sony introduced the first Japanese magnetic recorder for sound and tape, followed by a TV camera and stereo tape recorder. In 1961, it unveiled the first fully transistorized VTR in the world. Matsushita was a diverse company dealing with a range of electrical appliances. To beat this company’s success, the rivals developed cheaper appliances. The diversities in technology led to a need for international standards to govern this. Sony wanting to outdo its foreign rivals collaborated with JVC and Matsushita in the establishment of ? inch tape cassettes. Sony, JVC and Matsushita made strategic management of technology by learning through trials. These companies were persistent and flexible. Ampex and RCA in America lacked consistency in their strategic direction making them fail to sustain technical development. The Japanese companies had stable technical teams which ensured stability in the organization. Top managers were involved in making critical decisions. Ampex VTR organization was however marred with instability (Rosenbloom & Cusumano, 1987). The basic VCR technology originated from the US and Europe although the Japanese industries have been successful in the industry. The success attributed to the Japanese industries was achieved by more improvements on the basic technology rather than just copying what the West had to offer. The advent of transistors, semiconductors and microchips greatly boosted the electronic industry in Japan.