Article Critique #1 Essays - Abuse, Social Psychology, Persecution

Article Critique #1 Essays - Abuse, Social Psychology, Persecution SED 578 Article Critique #1 Bullying behaviors in school remains a major issue even today. Behaviors such as physical aggression, taunting, teasing, name-calling, threatening, social exclusion, and harassment have negative effects both socially and academically for students engaging in the behaviors and those targeted. They may become anxious and depressed, isolate themselves from peer groups, or even avoid school for fear of being bullied. Prevalence estimates suggest that bullying behavior is not limited to an isolated few students, but occurs across all strata and subgroups in most schools (Bradshaw & Waasdorp, 2011). Male students are more likely than female students to engage in these bullying activities and there is a rise in bullying during transition periods such as moving from middle school to high school. Children and youth who engage in bullying behavior may have a physical advantage, higher social status, or power in numbers, whereas those who are targeted by bullies are likely to be smaller in stat ure, poor or of different culture. There have been many programs suggested over the years to help prevent bullying behavior. One of these approaches to prevention is to build a positive environment for all students and to teach constructive responses. Holding school assemblies with speakers who highlight the harmful effects of bullying and to teach students how to identify bullies, then follow up with a focus on catching these students in the act and providing increasingly severe punishment. Additional programs may include conflict resolution, peer support systems, or working with individuals identified as bullies. Often, anti-bullying programs are implemented as a response to an already significant bullying problem. However, aggressive behavior developed at a young age tends to endure and escalate as the individual moves into late childhood and adolescence (Berthold Kellam, Rebok, Ialongo, & Mayer, 1994). Once these patterns of behavior become established in schools, intervention can be difficult. Schools respond to bullying by implementing more rules and applying more severe consequences, and if that does not work, the response is to make consequences more severe. Bullies often hold negative opinion of others, have difficulty resolving problems, and come from a hostile family associated with poor parental monitoring and authoritarian discipline styles. Bullies who observe these aggressive acts tend to view violence positively and model a need for power with enjoyment in hurting others. Thats why as teachers, beings a key influence in a students life, need to place a key focus on understanding the underlying problems of why these students are acting the way they are. Too often, school personnel focus on unwanted behaviors, and provide punitive consequences when these behaviors are observed. Rigby and Bagshaw (2003) found that approximately 50% of the adolescent participants perceived that teachers were more likely to yell at the bullies, a response that reinforces the same techniques used by the bully. When school policy is designed to punish unwanted behavior, students may not know what behavior is desired, and long-term behavioral change may not occur. Bullying often occurs when supervision is lacking, such as on the playground. Yet, even with greater attention to supervision and monitoring, teachers and other school personnel often do not recognize bullying incidents or the frequency of this behavior. Also, they do not always accurately identify the bully, often lack confidence in their ability to deal with a bullying situation, and tend to underreport these incidents. When educators dismiss bullying behaviors and do not intervene, it appears as if they support aggressive behaviors. Thus, when students believe that the school culture is one that ignores bullying, they are less likely to seek help. That is why we must pay close attention and make sure we have interventions ready to go when these kinds of issues arise. Bullying is a social concern and schools have an obligation to be active to prevent bullying behaviors. Collaborative approaches amongst teachers, school counselors, and families bring about a positive attitude in which the skills of educators support one another for the benefit of the students. We share school-wide considerations for bullying policies, and how school counselors, educators and parents can all lend their expertise to encourage and advance young adolescent development while also teaching and learning preventive strategies to reduce bullying behaviors in schools. Heinrichs, R. R. (2003).

Refutation Definition and Examples

Refutation Definition and Examples In rhetoric, refutation is the part of an argument in which a speaker or writer counters opposing points of view. Also called  confutation. Refutation is the key element in debate, say the authors of The Debaters Guide   (2011). Refutation makes the whole process exciting by relating ideas and arguments from one team to those of the other (The Debaters Guide, 2011). In speeches, refutation and confirmation are often presented conjointly with one another (in the words of the unknown author of Ad Herrenium): support for a claim (confirmation) can be enhanced by a challenge to the validity of an opposing claim (refutation). In classical rhetoric, refutation was one of the rhetorical exercises known as the  progymnasmata. Examples and Observations Refutation is the part of an essay that disproves the opposing arguments. It is always necessary in a persuasive paper to refute or answer those arguments. A good method for formulating your refutation is to put yourself in the place of your readers, imagining what their objections might be. In the exploration of the issues connected with your subject, you may have encountered possible opposing viewpoints in discussions with classmates or friends. In the refutation, you refute those arguments by proving the opposing basic proposition untrue or showing the reasons to be invalid...In general, there is a question about whether the refutation should come before or after the proof. The arrangement will differ according to the particular subject and the number and strength of the opposing arguments. If the opposing arguments are strong and widely held, they should be answered at the beginning. In this case, the refutation becomes a large part of the proof . . .. At other times when the opp osing arguments are weak, the refutation will play only a minor part in the overall proof. -Winifred Bryan Horner, Rhetoric in the Classical Tradition. St. Martins, 1988 Indirect and Direct Refutation Debaters refute through an indirect means when they use counter-argument to attack the case of an opponent. Counter-argument is the demonstration of such a high degree of probability for your conclusions that the opposing view loses its probability and is rejected...Direct refutation attacks the arguments of the opponent with no reference to the constructive development of an opposing view...The most effective refutation, as you can probably guess, is a combination of the two methods so that the strengths of the attack come from both the destruction of the opponents views and the construction of an opposing view. -Jon M. Ericson, James J. Murphy, and Raymond Bud Zeuschner,  The Debaters Guide, 4th ed. Southern Illinois University Press, 2011An effective refutation must speak directly to an opposing argument. Often writers or speakers will claim to be refuting the opposition, but rather than doing so directly, will simply make another argument supporting their own side. This is a fo rm of the fallacy of irrelevance through evading the issue. -Donald Lazere,  Reading and Writing for Civic Literacy: The Critical Citizens Guide to  Argumentative Rhetoric. Taylor Francis, 2009 Cicero on Confirmation and Refutation [T]he statement of the case . . . must clearly point out the question at issue. Then must be conjointly built up the great bulwarks of your cause, by fortifying your own position, and weakening that of your opponent; for there is only one effectual method of vindicating your own cause, and that includes both the confirmation and refutation. You cannot refute the opposite statements without establishing your own; nor can you, on the other hand, establish your own statements without refuting the opposite; their union is demanded by their nature, their object, and their mode of treatment. The whole speech is, in most cases, brought to a conclusion by some amplification of the different points, or by exciting or mollifying the judges; and every aid must be gathered from the preceding, but more especially from the concluding parts of the address, to act as powerfully as possible upon their minds, and make them zealous converts to your cause. -Cicero, De Oratore, 55 BC Richard Whately on Refutation Refutation of Objections should generally be placed in the midst of the Argument; but nearer the beginning than the end. If indeed very strong objections have obtained much currency, or have been just stated by an opponent, so that what is asserted is likely to be regarded as paradoxical, it may be advisable to begin with a Refutation. -Richard Whately, Elements of Rhetoric, 1846)​ FCC Chairman William Kennards Refutation There will be those who say Go slow. Dont upset the status quo. No doubt we will hear this from competitors who perceive that they have an advantage today and want regulation to protect their advantage. Or we will hear from those who are behind in the race to compete and want to slow down deployment for their own self-interest. Or we will hear from those that just want to resist changing the status quo for no other reason than change brings less certainty than the status quo. They will resist change for that reason alone. So we may well hear from a whole chorus of naysayers. And to all of them, I have only one response: we cannot afford to wait. We cannot afford to let the homes and schools and businesses throughout America wait. Not when we have seen the future. We have seen what high capacity broadband can do for education and for our economy. We must act today to create an environment where all competitors have a fair shot at bringing high capacity bandwidth to consumers- especial ly residential consumers. And especially residential consumers in rural and underserved areas. -William Kennard, Chairman of the FCC, July 27, 1998 Etymology: From the Old English, beat Pronunciation: REF-yoo-TAY-shun