Apology by Plato essay

Apology by Plato essay Apology by Plato essay Apology by Plato essayIn Plato’s Apology, the reader finds much interesting information about the philosophic thought that is derived from Socrates’ defense speech. Socrates, Plato’s teachers and friend, is ready to defend himself. Socrates’ mission is to help people to better understand the meaning of life in order to change their lives, placing emphasis on virtue and souls. He says,It is the greatest good for a human being to discussVirtue every day and the other thingsAbout which you hear me conversing and examining both myself and others,For the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being (Plato 38b).  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Socrates claims that his role in Athenian society is important because he is the one who can support the integrity of the society he lives in by his role as gadfly. Socrates uses his unique philosophical argumentation to explain power relations within the Athenian society.There are two sets of charges that were brought against Socrates: the first one is disrespect to the city’s gods and the second one is corruption of young people. These charges include formal charges brought by Anytus, Meletus and Lycon and some earlier charges brought by anonymous people. Nevertheless, these two sets of charges are interlinked. The charges include â€Å"corrupting the young, and by not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel† (Plato 24b).Socrates responds to these charges are convincing. He denies the fact that his philosophy and philosophic activities cause harm to the society he lives in and the city in general. He denies that his philosophy can corrupt the youth, claiming that his philosophic thought is of great value for humanity. Socrates tries to persuade the jury about his innocence, â€Å"No greater good has come to be in the city than my service to the God† (Plato). Socrates states that his way of life is the best way of life for all human beings because it produces happiness for everyone in the city.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   My own view of Socrates’ innocence is based on a number of facts, including his philosophic thought, his mission and his self-confidence. I believe in Socrates’ innocence, although the charges brought to him by the court are rather serious for Athenians. Socrates’ defense against the charge that he doesn’t believe in Gods is honest and sufficient. He admits that he does not believe in the Gods of the city, but he is guided by some sort of higher being, or spirits. He states, â€Å"I live in great poverty because of my service to God† (23c). I completely agree with Socrates’ argument that the claim regarding his atheism is false because he believes in higher spiritual beings. I would have voted set him free because these two sets of charges are insufficient for death penalty.   The second claim about the corrupted youth is also false because there is no proof.   One man cannot be blamed for the corruption of the entire generation of young people. Therefore, for these two sets of charges, I would have vote in Socrates’ favor, considering him innocent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Thus, it is necessary to conclude that Socrates has gained worldwide fame for accepting his death for the two sets of charges corrupting the youth and disregarding the Athenian city’s Gods.   In Apology, Plato tells the story of Socrates’ trial, describing his behavior and his unique defense during the trial process. Socrates is innocent because his philosophic thought is useful for Athenians. He has been wrongly accused.

Effective Teaching and Learning Essays

Effective Teaching and Learning Essays Effective Teaching and Learning Essay Effective Teaching and Learning Essay EFFECTIVE TEACHING LEARNING Total word count : 1829 PGCE MFL French Assignment 1 Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. Benjamin Franklin Written Summary Activity 1 During my first week of induction, I had the opportunity to observe and sometimes take part in a wide range of language lessons in no less than the 4 different languages my placement school offers to its pupils. Being in a classroom with experimented MFL teachers not only inspired me even more to start delivering lessons myself but it also enabled me to reflect on a great number of issues discussed previously during the university course. Notwithstanding the importance of this experience, the pupil shadowing session was an even more revealing activity to some extent as I could , for the first time since I was myself a secondary school student, experience a full school day from a pupils point of view. Beyond the curricular aspect, what struck me the most was the great variety of teaching styles a Year 9 pupil can encounter in only a days time. Indeed, the level of involvement and autonomy of the pupils, the pace, the amount of cultural references or the behavior management were completely different from one lesson to another. This led me to the conclusion that the teacher is the utmost important element for the transmission of knowledge in the classroom and that radically different teaching styles lead themselves to completely different expectations, targets, and very different results in terms of behaviour, concentration, interest in the subjects and thus, overall achievement. Exploring subject Pedagogy Activity 2 Most educators agree that children need to be in supportive, friendly environments. (Hitz Driscoll, 1989) When observing a lesson, the most obvious thing one can observe a teacher doing to achieve such a goal is using praise. Praise in the classroom is a vast concept, and it can come in many forms, aim at different goals depending on the size of the class, the pupils age, their ability, their behaviour, their motivation or precisely their very attitude in response to praise and positive feedback. The two main types of praise are ability feedback and effort feedback. According to some research on the subject (Marsh, 1990) ability feedback is the generally the most valued kind of praise by the students, but effort feedback is the most efficient in actually improving their performances. (Dweck, 1999) Most MFL teachers in my placement school , a specialist language college, share their forms with another colleague from the department and thus end up teaching to a lot of different classes. To ensure continuity, they implemented a common feedback system for KS3 pupils which consists of giving stamp marks on their copybooks for good answers, and rewards after a certain number of stamps. I observed however that, as Meyer (1979) points out, certain kinds of praise [such as this one] may set up even the most capable students for failure. No student can always be good or nice or smart. In order to avoid negative evaluations, students may tend not to take chances and attempt difficult tasks. Hence the necessity of adding collective praise in order to instill a sense of togetherness as well as a collaborative atmosphere in the classroom and make sure that no pupils feel left behind. One of the teacher I observed often ends up her language lessons by praising collectively her class just before doing the plenary using expressions such as were all making progress or everybody did their best so that everyone is complimented. The idea behind this is that, regardless of their actual success in achieving the goals, all the learners should be given the same opportunity to improve themselves. Planning, delivery and evaluation of a learning episode Activity 3 The first learning episode I had the opportunity to teach was a plenary for a french year 11 top set class. There are 13 pupils, theyve already passed their GCSE and most of them with an A or above grade. Many of them have ,thus, high level speaking skills and can cope with high level listening activities. I took these facts into account while planning my plenary, which was aimed at introducing the topic they were about to start to work on the week after :La publicite. I wanted them to engage them from the start so I asked them to form pairs and to guess the nature of the topic only with the clues I gave them, one at a time to build up suspense. The aim was to get them interested and create a collaborative atmosphere, in teaching and MFL teaching specifically, activities have to be seen as useful and challenging, and what is more useful in the short term to actually know what the next topic youve got to prepare to work on will be. Although, even if I had planned that most o f the plenary would be in the target language, the hardest part was to actually stick to this and not be tempted to switch back too rapidly to English whenever a sentence or a concept wasnt understood well. Challenging the learners and having high expectation of them is one of the most important aspect of language teaching indeed. 1 Written reflection and synthesis Collaboration and contextualisation in the classroom Thorp et al. (1994) cited research indicating that students spend approximately 15,000 hours in the classroom environment during primary and secondary schooling. It is therefore important for students to have good experiences at school(Burnett, 2002) In comparison to academic success and attainment of targets, what actually is a good classroom environment is really hard to define as it can hardly be compared with figures and data. It is, though, an essential part of the teachers job to create an environment where pupils are at ease so it can become, as a result, a motivating and effective place to learn. Indeed, research suggests that a positive student-teacher relationship is an important aspect of a positive classroom environment (Birch Ladd, 1997) Collaboration in the classroom is multidimensional. Teachers collaborate with pupils by being supportive, encouraging and listening to their questions and problems; while pupils can collaborate with each other in group activities and with the teacher by making suggestions showing what are their own personal needs. Collective praise (cf. Activity 2) is one of the important aspects for a good classroom climate based on mutual understanding. By including the pupils by talking and giving feedback using the pronoun we instead of you , teachers can create a sense of shared endeavour; and , as I was able to observe during my induction, it seems to have a positive impact on the learners involvement in many cases, especially with KS3 pupils. The informal use of the target language itself during an MFL lesson can also be considered as a way of collaborating with pupils when greeting them or motivating so that they can do the same. On several occasions, I observed lessons where the teacher engaged themselves in an intellectual reflection with the pupils, fully involved themselves in the process and opened their lesson to pupils contributions and suggestions. In a top-set Year 9 German lesson, the teacher planned it with the goal of enabling the pupils to work on a new grammatical notion, the ultimate goal by the end of the lesson being to come to the conclusion of the existence of a clear pattern. During the whole lesson, the teacher wasnt in the role of the adult delivering its superior and wider knowledge to its classroom but more on the pupils side trying to team up with the whole class even if she obviously knew what was the outcome and had the knowledge of the notion. By doing this, she succeeded in creating a positive atmosphere and a certain sense of togetherness In a science lesson on genetics and cloning I attended during my pupil shadowing day, the teacher first introduced the topic and covered the subject from a scientific point of view during the first half hour and then involved the whole class in a debate over the ethical implications of cloning, while introducing new elements from the curriculum. The pupils really enjoyed exchanging their different point of view on this controversial topic and the teacher managed to challenge the pupils preconceptions by asking them why they came to such and such conclusion, how, and if it could be otherwise. (cf. Activity 1) She managed to fully engage the pupils while bringing a real-life context to her subject. Again, in MFL lessons, the use of the target language is a good way to bring a context to what is taught. Whether the learners are in the position of having to understand and respond to instructions in the target language, or when theyre involved in role-plays, they are implicitly putting their skills and knowledge in use and into context. The very presence of the target language in its written form in the classroom through displays, maps or revision posters is also very beneficial in immersing even more the learners in a language oriented environment. Some language lessons in my placement school are fully oriented towards cultural or historical topic. The promotion of and the understanding of other culture is indeed one of the most important aims of modern language studies. As an example, I observed a Chinese geography lesson aimed at revising some words and characters already learnt as well as learning more about Chinas cities and geographical features. Language assistants are especially helpful as well in that matter. Their very presence represents an amazing opportunity for pupils to practice the language and learn more about a foreign culture with a native speaker. There are 3 language assistants in my school and theyre indeed playing a very important role in adding meaning to learning. Exchanges and partnerships with foreign schools can also very beneficial as they enable even more pupils to have contacts with native speakers of their age and intercultural dialogue to take place. In my induction school, some Year 10 students hosted German pupils during and exchange weeks during which several activities were organised including a trip to York. This was a great opportunity for the German pupils to discover an historical city where they had never been before but also for the schools pupils to get an insight into their own culture and be able to make cross-cultural comparisons. The whole experience ,in fact, enabled them to develop a more objective view of their own local history but also their own customs and way of thinking. Beyond that, schools exchange whether its through correspondence or through actual travel to another country is a formidable way to get an insight in another countrys culture and way of life and , in many cases, the utmost source of motivation fo r learning a language which eventually is to be able to communicate and share with others. Whether it is through collaboration with the learners or proposing learning activities with the aim of developing cultural awareness, involvement in secondary education, and more specifically in language education, is a key to motivate learners to set themselves goals to attain. One of the role of a language teacher is to make sure that they seize any such occasion to challenge, fully engage their learners in the context of a relevant environment to eventually guide them toward success. Bibliography Meyer, W. Informational Value of Evaluative Behavior: Influences of Social Reinforcement on Achievement. JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 71(2) (1979): 259-268. Hitz, Randy Driscoll, Amy ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education Urbana IL. (1989) Marsh, H.W. (1990). The influences of internal and external factors of reference on the formation of English and math self-concepts. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 107â€Å"116. Dweck, C.S. (1999). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press. Meyer, W. Informational Value of Evaluative Behavior: Influences of Social Reinforcement on Achievement. JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 71(2) (1979): 259-268. Paul C. Burnett, Centre for Research and Graduate Training, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia Educational Psychology, Vol. 22, No. 1, 2002 Teacher Praise and Feedback and Studentsâ„ ¢ Perceptions of the Classroom Environment Thorp, H.S., Burden, R.L., Fraser, B.J. (1994). Assessing and improving classroom environment. School Science Review, 75, 107â€Å"113 Birch, S.H., Ladd, G.W. (1997). The teacher-child relationship and childrenâ„ ¢s early school adjustment. Journal of School Psychology, 35, 61â€Å"79. My key features for teaching School Larger than average size secondary school. The proportion of students known to be eligible for free school meals is well below average. The proportion of minority ethnic students is below average. The proportion of students with special educational needs and/or disabilities is well below average The proportion with a statement of special educational needs is broadly average. The school has a languages specialism. (OfSTED, 2010) Modern Foreign Languages : 13 teachers 3 language assistants 4 Modern foreign languages taught , + Latin Emphasis on and importance of grammar in the schemes of work A lot of resources available Language lab Exchanges with foreign schools French Available as a first or a second language First language in the school in terms of pupils learning it (Induction Block A school language classroom 03.10.2011) (Induction Block A school language classroom 03.10.2011) (Induction Block A school language classroom 03.10.2011)

Empirical analysis of determinants of audit fees in China Essay

Empirical analysis of determinants of audit fees in China - Essay Example However, financial information about some of the listed companies was missing for which the Chinese database RESSET was used as the supplementary source. Apart from this, annual report of some of the companies was also checked. The data that are considered for the study are of 2011. For the analysis of the collected data SPSS, statistical software has been used. The first section is based on the analysis of the whole data set that comprises of data of the listed companies of both Shenzhen and Shanghai. The second section analyses the data of the two cities separately. 4.2 Descriptive Statistics of whole sample The Table 1 given below shows the statistics for the audit fees with respect to the other variables. As the table shows that the minimum audit fees is ?1.00 million, whereas the maximum is ?3.51 million. This reveals that there is a huge difference between the audit fees of the two cities. However, the average audit fees in these two cities are ?3.51 million. This huge differen ce can be due to the factors like characteristics of the area and financial position of the company, which are located at the various places of the two cities. ... The minimum inventory ratio is 0 while the maximum is .94. The average inventory ratio is 0.18. The inventory ratio depicts a huge difference between the maximum and minimum levels. Some of the organizations are seen to have no inventories at all while some other companies are having a high level of inventory with them. This ratio helps in determining the fact whether the organization is making optimum utilization of resources. Therefore, a high inventory ratio is not good for the organization (Barthwal, 2007; Anupindi et al., 2008). Accounts receivables is the claim that is paid in cash and in exchange for the product and services that are provided by the company. The position of accounts receivable in comparison to the total assets of the firm is shown by the accounts receivable ratio. It signifies the complexity of the organization (Jiambalvo, 2009; 2007; Weil, 2012). The table 1 shows that the accounts receivable ratio ranges between the minimum value of 00 and the maximum value of 0.60. The average account receivable ratio is 0.93. The intangibles ratio of the firm is another factor, which is considered to affect the auditor’s fees. When the intangible assets are compared to the total asset, it is seen that the ratio is at a minimum level of 00 and the maximum level of 0.67. The average intangible ratio is 0.05. This reveals that some of the companies do not have any type of intangible assets while some others have. The current ratio is another factor that may affect the audit fees. The current ratio is calculated by dividing the current assets by the current liabilities (Lasher, 2013; Pratt, 2010; Gibson, 2012). The minimum current ratio is 0.11 and the maximum is 204.74. This signifies that there exists a huge