What is Cooperative Learning

 

Definition of Cooperative Learning........

 

 

Students’ learning goals may be structured to promote cooperative, competitive, or individualistic efforts.  In every classroom, instructional activities are aimed at accomplishing goals and are conducted under a goal structure.  A learning goal is a desired future state of demonstrating competence or mastery in the subject area being studied.  The goal structure specifies the ways in which students will interact with each other and the teacher during the instructional session.  Each goal structure has its place (Johnson & Johnson, 1989, 1999).  In the ideal classroom, all students would learn how to work cooperatively with others, compete for fun and enjoyment, and work autonomously on their own.  The teacher decides which goal structure to implement within each lesson.  The most important goal structure, and the one that should be used the majority of the time in learning situations, is cooperation.

Cooperation is working together to accomplish shared goals.  Within cooperative situations, individuals seek outcomes that are beneficial to themselves and beneficial to all other group members. Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning.  It may be contrasted with competitive (students work against each other to achieve an academic goal such as a grade of “A” that only one or a few students can attain) andindividualistic (students work by themselves to accomplish learning goals unrelated to those of the other students) learning.  In cooperative and individualistic learning, you evaluate student efforts on a criteria-referenced basis while in competitive learning you grade students on a norm-referenced basis.  While there are limitations on when and where you may use competitive and individualistic learning appropriately, you may structure any learning task in any subject area with any curriculum cooperatively.

Theorizing on social interdependence began in the early 1900s, when one of the founders of the Gestalt School of Psychology, Kurt Koffka, proposed that groups were dynamic wholes in which the interdependence among members could vary.  One of his colleagues, Kurt Lewin refined Koffka’s notions in the 1920s and 1930s while stating that (a) the essence of a group is the interdependence among members (created by common goals) which results in the group being a “dynamic whole” so that a change in the state of any member or subgroup changes the state of any other member or subgroup, and (b) an intrinsic state of tension within group members motivates movement toward the accomplishment of the desired common goals.  For interdependence to exist, there must be more than one person or entity involved, and the persons or entities must have impact on each other in that a change in the state of one causes a change in the state of the others.  From the work of Lewin’s students and colleagues, such as Ovisankian, Lissner, Mahler, and Lewis, it may be concluded that it is the drive for goal accomplishment that motivates cooperative and competitive behavior.

In the late 1940s, one of Lewin’s graduate students, Morton Deutsch, extended Lewin’s reasoning about social interdependence and formulated a theory of cooperation and competition (Deutsch, 1949, 1962).  Deutsch conceptualized three types of social interdependence–positive, negative, and none.  Deutsch’s basic premise was that the type of interdependence structured in a situation determines how individuals interact with each other which, in turn, largely determines outcomes.  Positive interdependence tends to result in promotive interaction, negative interdependence tends to result in oppositional or contrient interaction, and no interdependence results in an absence of interaction.  Depending on whether individuals promote or obstruct each other’s goal accomplishments, there is substitutability, cathexis, and inducibility.  The relationships between the type of social interdependence and the interaction pattern it elicits is assumed to be bidirectional.  Each may cause the other.  Deutsch’s theory has served as a major conceptual structure for this area of inquiry since 1949.

Types Of Cooperative Learning

Formal Cooperative Learning

Formal cooperative learning consists of students working together, for one class period to several weeks, to achieve shared learning goals and complete jointly specific tasks and assignments (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 2008).  In formal cooperative learning groups the teachers’ role includes (see Figure 4):

1.  Making preinstructional decisions.  Teachers (a) formulate both academic and social skills objectives, (b) decide on the size of groups, (c) choose a method for assigning students to groups, (d) decide which roles to assign group members, (e) arrange the room, and (f) arrange the materials students need to complete the assignment.  In these preinstructional decisions, the social skills objectives specify the interpersonal and small group skills students are to learn.  By assigning students roles, role interdependence is established.  The way in which materials are distributed can create resource interdependence.  The arrangement of the room can create environmental interdependence and provide the teacher with easy access to observe each group, which increases individual accountability and provides data for group processing.

2.  Explaining the instructional task and cooperative structure.Teachers (a) explain the academic assignment to students, (b) explain the criteria for success, (c) structure positive interdependence, (d) structure individual accountability, (e) explain the behaviors (i.e., social skills) students are expected to use, and (f) emphasize intergroup cooperation (this eliminates the possibility of competition among students and extends positive goal interdependence to the class as a whole).  Teachers may also teach the concepts and strategies required to complete the assignment.  By explaining the social skills emphasized in the lesson, teachers operationalize (a) the social skill objectives of the lesson and (b) the interaction patterns (such as oral rehearsal and jointly building conceptual frameworks) teachers wish to create.

3.  Monitoring students’ learning and intervening to provide assistance in (a) completing the task successfully or (b) using the targeted interpersonal and group skills effectively.While conducting the lesson, teachers monitor each learning group and intervene when needed to improve taskwork and teamwork.  Monitoring the learning groups creates individual accountability; whenever a teacher observes a group, members tend to feel accountable to be constructive members.  In addition, teachers collect specific data on promotive interaction, the use of targeted social skills, and the engagement in the desired interaction patterns.  This data is used to intervene in groups and to guide group processing.

4.  Assessing students’ learning and helping students process how well their groups functioned.  Teachers (a) bring closure to the lesson, (b) assess and evaluate the quality and quantity of student achievement, (c) ensure students carefully discuss how effectively they worked together (i.e., process the effectiveness of their learning groups), (d) have students make a plan for improvement, and (e) have students celebrate the hard work of group members.  The assessment of student achievement highlights individual and group accountability (i.e., how well each student performed) and indicates whether the group achieved its goals (i.e., focusing on positive goal interdependence).  The group celebration is a form of reward interdependence.  The feedback received during group processing is aimed at improving the use of social skills and is a form of individual accountability.  Discussing the processes the group used to function, furthermore, emphasizes the continuous improvement of promotive interaction and the patterns of interaction need to maximize student learning and retention.

Informal Cooperative Learning

Informal cooperative learning consists of having students work together to achieve a joint learning goal in temporary, ad-hoc groups that last from a few minutes to one class period (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 2008).  During a lecture, demonstration, or film, informal cooperative learning can be used to focus student attention on the material to be learned, set a mood conducive to learning, help set expectations as to what will be covered in a class session, ensure that students cognitively process and rehearse the material being taught, summarize what was learned and precue the next session, and provide closure to an instructional session.  The teacher’s role for using informal cooperative learning to keep students more actively engaged intellectually entails having focused discussions before and after the lesson (i.e., bookends) and interspersing pair discussions throughout the lesson.  Two important aspects of using informal cooperative learning groups are to (a) make the task and the instructions explicit and precise and (b) require the groups to produce a specific product (such as a written answer).  The procedure is as follows.

1.  Introductory Focused Discussion:  Teachers assign students to pairs or triads and explain (a) the task of answering the questions in a four to five minute time period and (b) the positive goal interdependence of reaching consensus.  The discussion task is aimed at promoting advance organizing of what the students know about the topic to be presented and establishing expectations about what the lecture will cover.  Individual accountability is ensured by the small size of the group.  A basic interaction pattern of eliciting oral rehearsal, higher-level reasoning, and consensus building is required.

2.  Intermittent Focused Discussions:  Teachers divide the lecture into 10 to 15 minute segments.  This is about the length of time a motivated adult can concentrate on information being presented.  After each segment, students are asked to turn to the person next to them and work cooperatively in answering a question (specific enough so that students can answer it in about three minutes) that requires students to cognitively process the material just presented.  The procedure is:

a.  Each student formulates his or her answer.

b.  Students share their answer with their partner.

c.  Students listen carefully to their partner’s answer.

d.  The pairs create a new answer that is superior to each member’s initial formulation by integrating the two answers, building on each other’s thoughts, and synthesizing.

The question may require students to:

a.  Summarize the material just presented.

b.  Give a reaction to the theory, concepts, or information presented.

c.  Predict what is going to be presented next; hypothesize.

d.  Solve a problem.

e.  Relate material to past learning and integrate it into conceptual frameworks.

f.  Resolve conceptual conflict created by presentation.

Teachers should ensure that students are seeking to reach an agreement on the answers to the questions (i.e., ensure positive goal interdependence is established), not just share their ideas with each other.  Randomly choose two or three students to give 30 second summaries of their discussions.  Such individual accountabilityensures that the pairs take the tasks seriously and check each other to ensure that both are prepared to answer.  Periodically, the teacher should structure a discussion of how effectively the pairs are working together (i.e., group processing).  Group celebrations add reward interdependence to the pairs.

3.  Closure Focused Discussion:  Teachers give students an ending discussion task lasting four to five minutes.  The task requires students to summarize what they have learned from the lecture and integrate it into existing conceptual frameworks.  The task may also point students toward what the homework will cover or what will be presented in the next class session.  This provides closure to the lecture.

Informal cooperative learning ensures students are actively involved in understanding what is being presented.  It also provides time for teachers to move around the class listening to what students are saying.  Listening to student discussions can give instructors direction and insight into how well students understand the concepts and material being as well as increase the individual accountability of participating in the discussions.

Cooperative Base Groups

Cooperative base groups are long-term, heterogeneous cooperative learning groups with stable membership (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 2008).  Members’ primary responsibilities are to (a) ensure all members are making good academic progress (i.e., positive goal interdependence) (b) hold each other accountable for striving to learn (i.e., individual accountability), and (c) provide each other with support, encouragement, and assistance in completing assignments (i.e., promotive interaction).  In order to ensure the base groups function effectively, periodically teachers should teach needed social skills and have the groups process how effectively they are functioning.  Typically, cooperative base groups are heterogeneous in membership (especially in terms of achievement motivation and task orientation), meet regularly (for example, daily or biweekly), and last for the duration of the class (a semester or year) or preferably for several years.  The agenda of the base group can include academic support tasks (such as ensuring all members have completed their homework and understand it or editing each other’s essays), personal support tasks (such as getting to know each other and helping each other solve nonacademic problems), routine tasks (such as taking attendance), and assessment tasks (such as checking each other’s understanding of the answers to test questions when the test is first taken individually and then retaken in the base group).

The teacher’s role in using cooperative base groups is to (a) form heterogeneous groups of four (or three), (b) schedule a time when they will regularly meet (such as beginning and end of each class session or the beginning and end of each week), (c) create specific agendas with concrete tasks that provide a routine for base groups to follow when they meet, (d) ensure the five basic elements of effective cooperative groups are implemented, and (e) have students periodically process the effectiveness of their base groups.

The longer a cooperative group exists, the more caring their relationships will tend to be, the greater the social support they will provide for each other, the more committed they will be to each other’s success, and the more influence members will have over each other.  Permanent cooperative base groups provide the arena in which caring and committed relationships can be created that provide the social support needed to improve attendance, personalize the educational experience, increase achievement, and improve the quality of school life.

Integrated Use Of All Three Types Of Cooperative Learning

These three types of cooperative learning may be used together (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 2008).  A typical class session may begin with a base group meeting, which is followed by a short lecture in which informal cooperative learning is used.  The lecture is followed by a formal cooperative learning lesson.  Near the end of the class session another short lecture may be delivered with the use of informal cooperative learning.  The class ends with a base group meeting.

 

Read More

Methods and strategies to use in planning

 

Methods  and strategies  to   use  in  planning 

The following is a list of some of the strategies used in this course to encourage active  learning. Active  lecturing.  An active lecture is not too different from any good lecture, but it attempts to directly involve listeners. There is no one best way to give an active lecture, but it involves any of the following techniques. Give information in small chunks (about 10 minutes), and then have class members do something with that information for a few minutes. Here are some examples of activities, which you can repeat or vary: ¡ ¡ •  Write a one-minute reaction to what you have just heard. Talk to the person next to you about what you heard and see how   your perspectives differ. Do you agree? Do you have questions? •  List as many key points as you can remember. •  Compare notes taken during the chunk. Help each other fill in gaps or   determine if crucial information is missing. (Some people do not allow note taking during the lecture, but this is up to the Instructor.) Give out cards or slips of paper in three different colours. When class members are listening to your comments, have them hold up a colour for ‘I understand’, ‘I don’t understand’, or ‘I disagree’. Then either stop and allow questions or adjust what you are saying so there are more ‘understand’ colours showing. This is particularly effective with large groups of 50 or more people. Ambassadors.  This is a useful way to get groups or individuals to exchange information. Two or more members move from one group to another to share/compare discussion etc. You may wish to have half of each group move to another group. This is especially useful if you do not have ample time for a whole-class discussion. Brainstorming. This is a technique for generating creative ideas on a topic. It may be an individual activity or organized as a group activity. Give people a limited amount of time (e.g. one minute) to say or write as many ideas as they can on a topic. No matter how unrelated an idea seems, write it down. (Alternatively, the Instructor might ask the whole class to brainstorm and write all the ideas on the board.) After the brief period of brainstorming, ideas may then be analysed, organized, and discussed. This is often used as a problem-solving technique. Ideas are then analysed in light of how useful they might be in solving the problem. Gallery  walk.  This is a strategy that borrows its name from a visit to an art gallery. Students walk through an exhibit of posters, artefacts, or display of items they have completed. They can be directed to take notes. The idea is to thoughtfully look at what is displayed. Graffiti  wall.  A graffiti wall may be displayed in the classroom for use all term. Students may write their thoughts, feelings, or expressions before or following each session and sign their name. Anonymous comments are not suitable. Ideas generated in class may

be posted on the ‘wall’. Use paper from a large roll of craft or newsprint paper or join several cardboard boxes together to make a wall that can be stored between sessions. Students can take turns getting and putting away the wall each session. Group work: some tips for forming instructional groups.  There is no one best way to form groups. The best way for you is the way that suits your purpose. Use a more complicated strategy if students need a break or need to be energized. Use a simple technique if time is short. Ways to form groups include the following: •  Ask people to count off from one to five (depending on the number of people you want in a group). Groups will form based on their number (e.g. all of the ones will gather together). •  Before class, determine how many people you want in a group or how many groups you need. Give each class member a different coloured sticker, star, or dot as they enter the class. Then when it is time to form groups, ask them to   find  people with the same sticker etc. and sit together. •  Put different coloured bits of paper in a cup or jar on each table. Have people take one and find people in the room with the same colour to form a group. •  Have students get together with everybody born in the same month as   they were. Make adjustments to the groups as needed. Mini-lecture.  A mini-lecture contains all the components of a good lecture. It is sharply focused. It begins with an introduction that provides an overview of what you will talk about. It offers examples and illustrations of each point. It concludes with a summary of the main point(s). One-minute  paper.  Ask class members to write for one minute on a particular topic (e.g. their reflections on a topic, an assigned subject). They are to focus on writing their ideas, without worrying about grammar and spelling. A one-minute paper differs from brainstorming because there is more focus. Pair-share.  Use this technique when you want two class members to work together to share ideas or accomplish a task. Simply ask them to work with a neighbour or have them find a partner based on some other criteria. It is very useful when you want people to quickly exchange ideas without disrupting the flow of the class. (Sharing in triads and foursomes are also small group techniques.) Poster session.  This is useful when you want students to organize their thoughts on a topic and present it to others in a quick but focused way. Have individuals or small groups work to create a poster to explain or describe something. For example, if they have been doing an inquiry on a particular topic, they would want to include their focus, methods, and outcomes, along with colourful illustrations or photographs. The poster can be self-explanatory or students can use it to explain their work. As an in-class tool, a poster session is often combined with a gallery walk so that the class may review a number of posters in a short time. Readers’ theatre.  readers’ theatre is a group dramatic reading from a text. Readers take turns reading all or parts of a passage. The focus is on oral expression of the part being read rather than on acting and costumes. readers’ theatre is a way to bring a text to life. It is a good idea to go over passages to be read aloud with students so they are familiar with any difficult words. Sometimes readers’ theatre is used to get student interested in a text. They hear passages read first and then read the longer text. KWL. This is a strategy that provides a structure for recalling what students know (K) about a topic, noting what students want to know (W), and finally listing what has already been learned and is yet to be learned (L). The KWL strategy allows students to take inventory of what they already know and what they want to know. Students can categorize information about the topic that they expect to use as they progress through a lesson or unit. Text-against-text.  This is a way of helping students learn to analyse and compare written documents. The idea is to look at two documents and search for overlap, confirmation, or disagreement. It is a way of looking at different perspectives. Sometimes it is useful to give students readings prior to class and ask them to compare the readings based on a set of study questions, such as: 1.  Look at each author separately. What do you think the author’s main point is? 2.  How does the author support his/her argument? 3.  Look at the authors together. In what ways do the authors agree? 4.  What are their points of disagreement? 5.  What is your opinion on the issue? Text-against-text may be used to compare a new reading or new information with material that has already been covered. In classrooms where the whole class uses a single textbook, Instructors often find they are teaching against what is in the textbook. Sometimes it is hard for students to accept that a textbook can and should be questioned. Putting together a text-against text activity using the textbook and outside materials (e.g. an article) can help them understand that there are legitimate differences of opinion on a subject. Articles need not contradict each other. They may be about the same topic, but offer students different ways of seeing a subject. Another way to use the activity is divide the class into groups, give each a set of materials, and have them debate the texts. Some university faculty like to put together text sets that include both scholarly and non-scholarly works and have students think about differences. For example, you might provide all students – regardless of their reading level or learning style – with easy-to-read materials as a way to introduce themselves to a topic. Even competent adult learners seek out ‘easy’ books or materials to learn about a new or complex topic. Providing a picture, newspaper article, or even a children’s book in a text set might give everyone the means of connecting to or understanding some aspect of the larger subject. Roundtable  technique.  For this technique, divide the class into small groups (i.e. four to six people), with one person appointed as the recorder. A question that has many possible answers is posed, and class members are given time to think about the answers. After the thinking period, members of the team share their responses with one another. The recorder writes the group’s answers. The person next to the recorder starts and each person in the group (in order) gives an answer until time is called. Quizzes.  Prepare and give a short quiz (15 minutes) over the different aspects of child development covered in the unit. As students take the quiz, ask them to circle items they are unsure of. They can review and discuss their work in the following ways: •  Triads. Have students meet in groups of three to review the quizzes so that   they can help each other with their weak areas. (10 minutes) •  Review. Go over the quiz with students, and have them look at their own work and make corrections. (30 minutes) ¡ ¡ ¡ 85 ¡ ¡ ¡ Notice points class members had difficulty remembering and take time to review them. You may ask students to assist with this and discuss how they were  able  to  remember. Use this time to correct any misconceptions. Have students save their quiz for future study.

Read More

Individual Differences and Differential

 Individual Differences and Differential 

 A brief history and prospect Used by permission of the author. [For classroom use only] William Revelle Joshua Wilt David M.Condon Northwestern  University Differential psychology has been a central concern to philosophers and psychologists, both applied and theoretical, for the past several millennia. It remains so today. he proper study of individual differences integrates methodology, affective and cognitive science, genetics and biology. It is a field with a long history and an exciting future. We review some of the major questions that have been addressed and make suggestions as to future directions. This handbook is devoted to the study of individual differences and differential psychology. To write a chapter giving an overview of the field is challenging, for the study of individual differences includes the study of affect, behavior, cognition, and motivation as they are affected by biological causes and environmental events. That is, it includes all of psychology. But it is also the study of individual differences that are not normally taught in psychology departments. Human factors, differences in physical abilities as diverse as taste, smell, or strength are also part of the study of differential psychology. Differential psychology requires a general knowledge of all of psychology for people (as well as chimpanzees, dogs, rats and fishes) differ in many ways. Thus, differential psychologists do not say that they are cognitive psychologists,  social-psychologists,  neuro-psychologists,  behavior  geneticists, psychometricians, or methodologists, for although we do those various hyphenated parts of psychology, by saying we study differential psychology, we have said we do all of those things. And that is true for everyone reading this handbook. We study differential psychology. Individual differences in how we think, individual differences in how we feel, individual differences in what we want and what we need, individual differences in what we do. We study how people differ and we also study why people differ. We study individual differences. There has been a long recognized division in psychology between differential psychologists and experimental psychologists (Cronbach, 1957; H. J. Eysenck, 1966), however, the past 30 years has seen progress in integration of these two approaches (Cronbach, 1975; H. J. Eysenck, 1997; Revelle & Oehleberg, 2008). Indeed, one of the best known experimental psychologists of the 60’s and 70’s argued that “individual differences ought to be considered central in theory construction, not peripheral” (Underwood, 1975, p 129). However, Underwood (1975) went on to argue (p 134) that these individual differences are not the normal variables of age, sex, IQ or social status, but rather are the process variables that are essential to our theories. Including these process variables remains a challenge to differential psychology. OVERVIEW OF DIFFERENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY The principles of differential psychology are seen outside psychology in computer science simulations and games, in medical assessments of disease symptymatology, in college and university admissions, in high school and career counseling centers, as well as in applied decision making. Early Differential Psychology and its application Differential psychology is not new for an un- derstanding of research methodology and individ- ual differences in ability and affect was described as early as the Hebrew Bible in the story of Gideon (Judges 6, 7). Gideon was something of a skeptic who had impressive methodological sophistication. In perhaps the first published example of a repeated measures, cross over design, he applied several behavioural tests to God before agreeing to go off to fight the Medians as instructed. Gideon put a wool fleece out on his threshing floor and first asked that by the next morning just the fleece should be wet with dew but the floor should be left dry. Then, the next morning, after this happened, as a cross over control, he asked for the fleece to be dry and the floor wet. Observing this double dissociation, Gideon decided to follow God’s commands. We believe that this is the first published example of the convincing power of a cross over interaction. (Figure 1 has been reconstructed from the published data.) In addition to being an early methodologist, Gideon also pioneered the use of a sequential assessment battery. Leading a troop of 32,000 men to attack the Midians, Gideon was instructed to reduce the set to a more manageable number (for greater effect upon achieving victory). To select 300 men from 32,000, Gideon (again under instructions from God) used a two part test. One part measured motivation and affect by selecting those 10,000 who were not afraid. The other measured crystallized intelligence, or at least battlefield experience, by selecting those 300 who did not lie down to drink water but rather lapped it with their hands (McPherson, 1901).  REVELLE, CONDON,

Gideon thus combined many of the skills of a differential psychologist.

 He was a methodologist skilled in within subject designs, a student of affect and behavior as well as familiar with basic principles of assessment. Other early applications of psy- chological principles to warfare did not emphasize individual differences so much as the benefits of training troops of a phalanx (Thucydides, as cited by Driskell & Olmstead,  1989). Early Differential Psychology and its   Differential psychology is not new for an un- distending of research methodology and individual differences in ability and affect was described as early as the Hebrew Bible in the story of Gideon (Judges 6, 7). Gideon was something of a skeptic who had impressive methodological sophistication. In perhaps the first published example of a repeated measures, cross over design, he applied several be- hairball tests to God before agreeing to go off to fight the Medians as instructed. Gideon put a wool fleece out on his threshing floor and first asked that by the next morning just the fleece should be wet with dew but the floor should be left dry. Then, the next morning, after this happened, as a cross over control, he asked for the fleece to be dry and the floor wet. Observing this double dissociation, Gideon decided to follow God’s commands. We believe that this is the first published example of the convincing power of a cross over interaction. (Figure 1 has been reconstructed from the published data.)  In addition to being an early methodologist, Gideon also pioneered the use of a sequential as- assessment battery. Leading a troop of 32,000 men to attack the Midians, Gideon was instructed to reduce the set to a more manageable number (for greater effect upon achieving victory). To select 300 men               COURSE GUIDE:  Educational Psychology            Floor         Wool     Moistur e 0. 0 0. 2 0. 4 0. 6 0. 8 1. 0 2 Night Figure 1. Gideon’s tests for God are an early example of a double dissociation and probably the first published example of a cross over interaction. On the first night, the wool was wet with dew but the floor was dry. On the second night, the floor was wet but the wool was dry (Judges  6:36-40)   Figure 1. Gideon’s tests for God are an early example of a double dissociation and probably the first published example of a cross over interaction. On the first night, the wool was wet with dew but the floor was dry. On the sec- ond night, the floor was wet but the wool was dry (Judges

 

REVELLE,  CONDON,  WILT Personality taxonomies That people differ is obvious.

How and why they differ is the subject of taxonomies of personality and other individual differences. An early and continuing application of these taxonomies is most clearly seen in the study of leadership effectiveness. Plato’s discussion of the personality and ability characteristics required for a philosopher king emphasized the multivariate problem of the rare cooccurence of appropriate  traits: ... quick intelligence, memory, sagacity, cleverness, and similar qualities, do not often grow together, and that persons who possess them and are at the same time high-spirited and magnanimous are not so constituted by nature as to live orderly and in a peaceful and settled manner; they are driven any way by their impulses, and all solid principle goes out of them.  ... On the other hand, those steadfast natures which can better be depended upon, which in a battle are impregnable to fear and immovable, are equally immovable when there is anything to be learned; they are always in a torpid state, and are apt to yawn and go to sleep over any intellectual toil. ... And yet we were saying that both qualities were necessary in those to whom the higher education is to be imparted, and who are to share in any office or command. (Plato, 1991, book 6) Similar work is now done by Robert Hogan and his colleagues as they study the determinants of leadership effectiveness in management settings (Hogan, 2007, 1994; Hogan et al., 1990; Padilla et al., 2007) as well as one of the editors of this volume, Adrian Furnham (Furnham, 2005). The dark side qualities discussed by Hogan could have been taken directly from The Republic. A typological rather than dimensional model of individual differences was developed by Theophrastus, a student of Aristotle, who was most famous as a botanical taxonomist. However, he is known to differential psychologists as a personality taxonomist who organized the individual differences he observed into a descriptive taxonomy of “characters”. The characters of Theophrastus are often used to summarize the lack of coherence of early personality trait description, although it is possible to organize his “characters” into a table that looks remarkably similar to equivalent tables of the late 20th century (John, 1990; John & Srivastava, 1999). 1600 years after Theophrastus, Chaucer added to the the use of character descriptions in his “Cantebury Tales” which are certainly the first and probably the “best sequence of ‘Characters’ in English Literature” (Morley, 1891, pg 2). This tradition continued into the 17th century where the character writings of the period are fascinating demonstration of the broad appeal of personality description and categorization  (Morley,  1891).

OVERVIEW OF DIFFERENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY Causal theories Tyrtamus of Lesbos, who was known as Theophrastus for his speaking ability, (Morley, 1891), asked a fundamental question of personality theory that is still of central concern to us today: Often before now have I applied my thoughts to the puzzling question – one, probably, which will puzzle me for ever – why it is that, while all Greece lies under the same sky and all the Greeks are educated alike, it has befallen us to have characters so variously constituted. This is, of course, the fundamental question asked today by differential psychologists who study behavior genetics (e.g., Bouchard, 1994, 2004) when they address the relative contribution of genes and shared family environment as causes of behavior. Biological personality models have also been with us for more than two millenia, with the work of Plato, Hippocrates and later Galen having a strong influence. Plato’s organization of the tripartite soul into the head, the heart and the liver (or, alterna- tively, reason, emotion and desire) remains the classic organization of the study of individual differences (Hilgard, 1980; Mayer, 2001; Revelle, 2007). Indeed, with the addition of behavior, the study of psychology may be said to be the study of affect (emotion), behavior, cognition (reason) and motivation (desire) as organized by Plato (but  without  the  physical  localization!). 500 years later, the great doctor, pharmacologist and physiologist, Galen (129-c.a. 216) organized and extended the earlier literature of his time, particularly the work of Plato and Hippocrates (c 450-380 BCE), when he described the causal basis of the four temperaments. His empirical work, based upon comparative neuroanatomy, provided support for Plato’s tripartite organization of affect, cognition, and desire. Although current work does not use the same biological concepts, the search for a biological basis of individual differences continues to this day. 1800 years later, Wilhelm Wundt (Wundt, 1874,1904) reorganized the Hippocrates/ Galen four temperaments into the two dimensional model later discussed by Hans Eysenck (H. J. Eysenck, 1965, 1967) and Jan Strelau (Strelau, 1998).

 

Read More

What are the symptoms of Omicron?

 What are the symptoms of Omicron?

اومیکرون کی علامات کیا ہیں؟

In the last 24 hours, more than 90,000 people in India have been diagnosed with corona virus, of which more than 2600 have been diagnosed with omecron. The head of India's Vaccine Task Force has confirmed the onset of the third wave of epidemics in the country

According to the research and information that has come to light so far, when Omicron attacks any person, at first it seems that the infected person has a cold or flu, because the initial symptoms of this virus are something like this. Are the same Other common symptoms include sore throat, runny nose and headache.

Are the symptoms of Omekron virus in Pakistan different from other countries of the world or are they the same? This question was asked by the BBC to the Minister of Health of Sindh where the case of Omicron was first reported in Pakistan.

Dr. Azra Fazal Pechoho said that so far it has been observed that the symptoms of Omicron are relatively mild and flu-like which is not much different from other types of Corona virus. These symptoms include runny nose, cough and fever, he said.

According to Dr. Azra, the extent to which omecron affects someone depends to a large extent on whether the infected person has been vaccinated against corona and how long it has been since the last vaccination. ۔

An important symptom of other forms of the corona virus that preceded omicron was that the infected patient complained that he had lost his sense of smell and taste, meaning that he could not taste any food or There was a sense of smell or odor of some kind. This is an important sign that the corona virus may be present.

But in Omekron, these symptoms do not appear to be so severe. The old virus also showed the patient symptoms of cough and fever. According to experts, these symptoms are not so common in Omecron but so far the three biggest symptoms of corona virus globally and officially are that the patient will experience loss of taste and smell along with cough and headache. ۔ One of the main reasons for this is the lack of research on omecron virus data so far.

Read More

What is Omicron?

 What is Omicon?

اومی کرون کیا ہے؟

A new variant of the corona virus, Omi Cron, has been declared a cause for concern by the World Health Organization. Earlier, a Delta variant of the corona virus was declared dangerous by the World Health Organization.

The clinical name of the Omi Kroon variant is B.1.1.529 and at least thirty variants have been identified. He was first diagnosed on November 23 in South Africa. The diagnosis was made during a clinical trial of blood samples taken on November 14 and 16. On November 26, the World Health Organization's Advisory Group for SARS Code Two reported this variant as a cause for concern.

Read More

How does a snake inject venom into the body?

 How does a snake inject venom into the body?

Snake venom is produced in the salivary glands in the back of the snake's mouth. The salivary glands are the parts of the head where saliva is formed. This venom is actually a mixture of different types of proteins and enzymes. For, snakes have hollow or perforated teeth that act like hypodermic needles as can be seen in the shape. It is injected into the victim's body through tiny holes.

Read More

Prison Weapons When criminal intelligence reaches its peak

 Prison Weapons When criminal intelligence reaches its peak !!!

(Writing and research: Tahir Shah 

Prison life can be hundreds of times more difficult, painful and challenging than normal life. In the largest prisons in the United States and Europe, where entire gangs are incarcerated, conditions inside prisons are as tense, dangerous, and deadly as in prisons outside the prisons.

Because even in prison, every gang or group wants to maintain its superiority ... Thus, murders and interrogations inside prisons, gang fights are commonplace, which often leads to hundreds of deaths and even the call for an army in prison.

It is as if it is as difficult for a criminal to conduct a survey inside the jail as it is to get out of the jail. However, outside of prison, they may have everything from automatic weapons, handguns, rifles, short guns to knives, daggers, baseball bats for their own protection or to suppress opponents.

But it is obviously not possible to keep a weapon inside the prison. As a result, a large number of habitual criminals and gang members make their own weapons from whatever is available inside the prison. so that :

Protect yourself from other criminals.

استعمال Use in combat with opposing gangs.

* To try to escape or to get the news of a hardened jailer.

So today let's talk about some of these DIY prison weapons whose creativity will amaze you ...

۔

1- Awakening knife / dagger Shiv knife:

This weapon is most commonly made and used in prisons around the world. Basically it can be made from any hard material.

For example, a piece of steel is broken from an iron bed of a cell and it is sharpened by rubbing it on a hard object and for the sake of grip, a handle is made by tying a piece of tape or cloth on one side of it ... if any metal. If the object is not available, the long, pointed piece of broken mirror is also used as a single stand dagger to tie the cloth to one side and it is more dangerous because when killed, it is a glass dagger, many inside the target's body. It breaks into pieces and even if it survives, long and careful surgery is needed to remove all the pieces.

A religious criminal even installed a sharp edge inside a wooden cross and turned it into a deadly weapon when needed.

...

2- Comb, toothbrush:

Ordinary criminals have the ability to turn even these everyday objects into deadly weapons. The razor blades used for shaving can be tied or heated on both sides of the handle of the comb as well as the toothbrush, and a dangerous double-edged weapon can be inserted into one of the veins in the blink of an eye. ...

...

3- Sweet Death - Candy Weapon:

It may be hard to believe that smart criminals have spared no effort to turn even Toffee into a murder weapon.

۔ Toffee, named Julie Rancher, is now being held in US prisons because criminals used to melt it and give it a sharp, long shape and then cool it. It was like a glass dagger.

...

4- Cross smell:

Crossbow is a dangerous but expensive weapon that is unlikely to be available in prison. However, in 1988, the guards of the "Stony Mountain Prison" in Canada found a ready-made cross-smell in the cell of a convict, which left the prison authorities speechless. The perpetrator used 10 toothbrushes, cigarette lighter machinery, tongs and a hanger to prepare it. When its arrows were tied together with the help of matching bags, masking tape, foil and pieces of wire ...

When the guards tested it, the crossbow surprised everyone by shooting an arrow at the target from a distance of 40 feet.

Fortunately, the weapon was confiscated before it could be used.

...

5- Fake guns:

In 1994, guards at the Wolfenbuttle prison in Germany recovered a sub-machine gun from the cell of a convicted raider on reports of an escape attempt. At first glance, it seemed as if he was shocked by a thousand volts as to how a military-type weapon reached a convict in this high-security prison, but when he examined it, he was relieved to see that it was actually a The dummy gun is ... They made it with the help of a grace injector, pieces of wood and a rubber sleeve and wrapped black tape around it to give it the shape of a real sub-machine gun so that it looked real. According to the plan, the criminals were to escape by taking the guard hostage with this dummy gun.

...

6- And real guns:

You heard the story of the fake gun. Now listen to the story of a real gun made by the criminals inside the prison. They set out to develop a truly dangerous weapon, a more dangerous Jagadi gun than a real handgun, in which they uprooted a bed rod as a berry, 2 battery cells, match spices, curtain tapes, wire. And made with the help of broken bulb filament ... As an ammunition they decided to use nuts and bolts.

On May 21, 1984, two criminals took a guard hostage and fired a shotgun in front of him, smashing a bulletproof glass to see if it was real and working. It was as if the gun was more destructive than a real handgun, which shattered even the strongest glass.

The criminals did this He was taken hostage and escaped from prison.

...

7- Chocolate:

If you know how to use toffee as a weapon, then listen to the use of chocolate as a single standalone weapon. Like toffee, criminals are notorious for melting caramel chocolate with the help of lighters and throwing it at their target's face and eyes. Boiling caramel acts as an acid on the face and the affected person suffers from severe pain and facial burns. He would be lucky if this liquid did not get into his eyes.

...

8- Paper:

Criminals can turn anything into a deadly weapon. The biggest example of this is the paper blade.

This weapon was developed by an American criminal who after rolling 25 sheets of National Geographic magazine firmly, made the end of this roll strong and sharp by penetrating it with soap and salt. This sharp roll proved to be as dangerous as a metal blade.

...

9- Spear:

In 1985, in a San Francisco prison, three convicts pulled out a rod from a bank bed and rubbed its head against a wall. And landed in the heart of a guard on duty. The guard was killed on the spot.

One offender was sentenced to death and the other two to life in prison.

...

10- Water:

Throwing water on someone and killing them may seem imaginary ... But in the same San Francisco prison, in 2011, a convict filled a large grocery bag, which weighed 44 pounds, with water and dropped it on his head from the fifth floor to kill another convict. The victim had to be transferred to ICU due to serious injuries. He survived, but remained in hospital for several months.

...

11- Sharp whip:

In 1996, in Germany's Fuhlsbuttle prison, guards reportedly found a wooden handle on a prisoner's cell. A bolt was tied to the end ... The weapon could have killed anyone from head to toe in a matter of seconds and was confiscated before it could be used.

...

12- Bomb:

In 1982, in North Carolina, USA, a serial killer named "Donald Gaskins" who was serving a life sentence for the murder of 100 people, may have decided to do one last good deed under the weight of his sins. It so happened that a man in prison named "Tony Chemo" came to see him.

Tony told Gaskins that one of his prison fellows, Rudolf Tyner, had brutally murdered his mother after being raped and that he wanted to kill her at any cost. So Gaskins, seeing his painful story and his sobbing and dying condition, reassured him that he would take the news to Tynes himself and that Tony should be relieved now.

Now God knows how the murderer of 100 people melted his heart when he heard the news of the murder of his mother from a son.

Gaskins was a very old and influential criminal ... He used his resources in prison to obtain material that could have been turned into explosives. Gaskins installed it in a manual radio and set its detonation in such a way that it would explode when the radio was turned on. During this time he developed a relationship with Tyner and pretended to be a fake friend. One day he handed the radio to Tyner and told him that he had turned the radio into a walkie-talkie and by turning it on at 12 o'clock at night he could talk to it like a wireless. At 12 o'clock that night, he was shaken by an explosion that ripped open the prison. Most of Tynes' body was torn to pieces.

On September 6, 1991, Gaskins was executed by electric chair in exchange for the intentional murder of Tyner.

Don't forget to share

# 

Read More

The James Webb telescope has been in space for about eleven days

 The James Webb telescope has been in space for about eleven days and is moving towards its final orbit. The last step left is to unfold the primary mirror - this step will probably be completed on January 6 or 7 - the rest of the steps have been completed in a cheerful manner.

In this graphic you can see the condition of the telescope in which all its parts were folded so that it could be mounted in the rocket. The various parts of it have been unfolded - today its secondary mirror has been locked in the correct position - if the last step is fixed without any difficulty then the James Webb telescope will reach its final configuration.

Folding such a complex and sensitive telescope in such a way as to unfold its parts one by one in space and in such a way that the sensitivity, accuracy, and precision of the telescope is maintained is a battle of engineering which many Will be remembered for decades - remember that all the tests to unfold this telescope were done on the ground where the response of materials due to gravity is different from that of space - therefore the members of this mission from the launch of this telescope. There was so much tension that although all its mechanisms were repeatedly tested on the ground, it was not possible to test these mechanisms in space before launch.

The perfect launch of this telescope is to be commended

Read More

When do the stars die?

 When do the stars die?

When do the stars die?

Inside the stars there is a lot of energy, this energy consists of Dostum's gases. One gas is called hydrogen while the other is called helium. When I run out of energy, the star begins to die. In the first stage, hydrogen gas begins to run out, followed by helium gas. After that the star starts to cool down, the cooling fan explodes. Larger stars usually die out quickly because the gaseous energy inside them is quickly depleted by explosions, whereas small stars have such nuclear explosions.

Read More

History of USA

 

United States, officially United States of America,

 abbreviated U.S. or U.S.A., byname America, country in North America, a federal republic of 50 states. Besides the 48 conterminous states that occupy the middle latitudes of the continent, the United States includes the state of Alaska, at the northwestern extreme of North America, and the island state of Hawaii, in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The conterminous states are bounded on the north by Canada, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The United States is the fourth largest country in the world in area (after Russia, Canada, and China). The national capital is Washington, which is coextensive with the District of Columbia, the federal capital region created in 1790.

The major characteristic of the United States is probably its big variety. Its physical environment ranges from the Arctic to the subtropical, from the moist rain forest to the arid desert, from the rugged mountain peak to the flat prairie. Although the total population of the United States is large by world standards, its overall population density is relatively low. The country embraces some of the world’s largest urban concentrations as well as some of the most extensive areas that are almost devoid of habitation

The United States contains a highly diverse population. Unlike a country such as China that largely incorporated indigenous peoples, the United States has a diversity that to a great degree has come from an immense and sustained global immigration. Probably no other country has a wider range of racial, ethnic, and cultural types than does the United States. In addition to the presence of surviving Native Americans (including American Indians, Aleuts, and Eskimos) and the descendants of Africans taken as enslaved persons to the New World, the national character has been enriched, tested, and constantly redefined by the tens of millions of immigrants who by and large have come to America hoping for greater social, political, and economic opportunities than they had in the places they left. (It should be noted that although the terms “America” and “Americans” are often used as synonyms for the United States and its citizens, respectively, they are also used in a broader sense for North, South, and Central America collectively and their citizens.)

The United States is the world’s greatest economic power, measured in terms of gross domestic product (GDP). The nation’s wealth is partly a reflection of its rich natural resources and its enormous agricultural output, but it owes more to the country’s highly developed industry. Despite its relative economic self-sufficiency in many areas, the United States is the most important single factor in world trade by virtue of the sheer size of its economy. Its exports and imports represent major proportions of the world total. The United States also impinges on the global economy as a source of and as a destination for investment capital. The country continues to sustain an economic life that is more diversified than any other on Earth, providing the majority of its people with one of the world’s highest standards of living.

The United States is relatively young by world standards, being less than 250 years old; it achieved its current size only in the mid-20th century. America was the first of the European colonies to separate successfully from its motherland, and it was the first nation to be established on the premise that sovereignty rests with its citizens and not with the government. In its first century and a half, the country was mainly preoccupied with its own territorial expansion and economic growth and with social debates that ultimately led to civil war and a healing period that is still not complete. In the 20th century the United States emerged as a world power, and since World War II it has been one of the preeminent powers. It has not accepted this mantle easily nor always carried it willingly; the principles and ideals of its founders have been tested by the pressures and exigencies of its dominant status. The United States still offers its residents opportunities for unparalleled personal advancement and wealth. However, the depletion of its resources, the contamination of its environment, and the continuing social and economic inequality that perpetuates areas of poverty and blight all threaten the fabric of the country.

The District of Columbia is discussed in the article Washington. For discussion of other major U.S. cities, see the articles Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Political units in association with the United States include Puerto Rico, discussed in the article Puerto Rico, and several Pacific islands, discussed in Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa.

 

Read More

Coincidence is a blessing

 Coincidence is a blessing

If we compare the tiger and the lion, in many respects the tiger has the advantage over the lion, but still the lion is called the king of the jungle. He catches twice as much as a lion. In addition, the size of the tiger's wings and the jump is also ahead of the tiger. The tiger is a better swimmer than the lion and the tiger's teeth are also relatively large. Despite the fact that the lion is called the king of the jungle, the reason is that the lion always lives in the form of a herd and has leadership qualities while the tiger likes to hunt alone. Would be king

Read More

Why do mosquitoes not get malaria?

 

Why do mosquitoes not get malaria?

Shah Academy

the answer. Malaria is not caused by mosquitoes for two reasons.

1. Mosquitoes do not have red blood cells, and the malaria virus mainly attacks red blood cells.

2- The germs of malaria enter the mosquito in this condition, in which case it does not cause malaria, whereas from the mosquito, this germ enters the human being in the state of giving his disease.

The bacterium that causes malaria is "plasmodium", which is transmitted from mosquitoes to humans.

If we look at the life cycle of this germ, its life cycle is divided into two stages, one stage in which it performs sexual reproduction and the other stage in which it performs asexual reproduction, its first stage is in human. And in the second mosquito. The condition of the germs that cause malaria is "sporozoites". Which is born in a mosquito, but is transmitted to humans by the bite of a mosquito, and then these sporozoites enter the human liver, and from there they evolve into a new state, called merozoites. These merozoites then enter the human red blood cells, increase their numbers there and at the same time transform into another state, called gametocytes, and then when another mosquito sucks human blood, these gametocytes enter the mosquito. Are transferred, where these gametocytes turn into sporozoites again.

So the condition in which the malaria germ (plasmodium) is transmitted from human to mosquito is gametocytes, but these gametocytes do not spread the disease. Which causes malaria. But sporozoites mainly attack human red cells, break down red cells and the substances released from these broken cells do more damage to the body.

Mosquitoes do not have red blood cells, they do not have blood, they have hemolymph instead of blood. Therefore, sporozoites live in the salivary glands of mosquitoes, and when a mosquito bites a human, it adds its own saliva to its blood, which prevents blood from clotting and the mosquito drinks blood. Are also included in human blood ...

The female anopheles mosquito usually transmits the malaria virus.

3

Read More