Beth Butler asked:


Parents look at me with confusion on their faces or call me with anxiety in their voices. They all wonder if they are doing the right thing. Many are on waiting lists to be have their child participate in a dual immersion program at a local magnet school, while others fork over hundreds and hundreds of dollars to have their toddler attend language immersion classes once a week. The problem is that these families represent a very small percentage of our United States population.

How many of you are able to afford hundreds of dollars for a weekly Spanish class for your child? How long is that waiting list for the immersion or dual immersion program at your local magnet school? Do a lot of your neighbors and colleagues have the same opportunity as you? The answers to these and other questions surrounding our feeble attempt to bring early language learning into the picture of this great nation are weak, feeble and show a clear lack of direction.

Research continues to conclude that bilingual education can and does provide children with a strong foundation in acquiring second language skills while increasing their proficiency in reading and math. (Dr. Bialystok, York University, 2001) In fact, Colin Baker, in his book titled Policy and Practice in Bilingual Education, speaks directly to the fact that bilingual education can work in the school systems and will result in meaningful instruction with successful language acquisition.

With that being said, could we get real here? There is absolutely no way our country of the United States of America will ever make the funds available to create the opportunity for immersion programs to be set up at every public elementary school starting next school year. My own daughter had physical education cut last year in her public school classroom. This year, they have teacher-directed PE three times a week. That sounds to me like what we used to call recess. All of us here about budget cuts here and not enough funds there. The harsh reality is that our country will never do what many other countries have been doing and continue to do to provide early language learning for their citizens.

Let us pretend for a fleeting moment that they did allot the funding (that is like dreaming for the salaries of teachers to finally be commiserate with doctors), then what? Where would they find enough bilingual teachers to instruct in all of these immersion programs across the country? The answer is nowhere. Statistics show that the United States does not have the pool of educators needed to implement nation wide immersion programs at any level. Can anyone say outsourcing? I do not know about you, but I am trying my best to support products, services and ideas that keep the jobs here in the US.

The last point that needs to be brought up in regards to this immersion vs. bilingual education debate is the most important one in my eyes. It is a common sense approach, a very easy to understand perspective and a view that involves the heart as well as the mind. Pretend you are a very young child again. Go ahead. Close your eyes for a moment (then open them back up to continue reading!). Your parents ramble on and on about objects in your home, and you learn the words for each item as you develop from an infant into a toddler. Your siblings also get involved in the family fun, and roll a ball at you, instructing you to roll the ball back. Here comes natural language learning!

Did you know that most language experts, linguists, agree that it is just as easy to learn two words for an object as it is to learn only one when you are in these early and formative years? That means your brother could easily toss in his limited knowledge of a second language from his middle school Spanish class and tell you pelota (pay-low-tah) while rolling the ball and also saying ball. Or at the dinner table, with you in your high chair, your family is using the words thank you followed by gracias (grah-see-ahs) as they pass one another food. These are all examples of introducing a new language in a bilingual format. There exists a seamless flow back and forth between the native language and the target language.

How much more realistic is this type of instruction for the stay at home mom, the preschool teacher, the family child care provider and the homeschooling parent? Tons! Even if you do not speak one word of French, you could easily grasp command of a few simply vocabulary words a week and introduce them to your baby. Or say you do not recall a lot of your high school Spanish (just enough to be dangerous at a bar in Mexico!); I bet you could easily bring a few words a day into your home and the life of your children by using this technique. You make the commitment, and you could easily change the course of direction in regards to the cognitive development of your child.

Resources are everywhere, and many of them are free. Yes, you heard me correctly. F-R-E-E!!! Simply conduct a search on the internet by plugging in the target language you want to introduce to your child. You will pull up thousands of results, and your job is now to sift through them and find what will make your child tick. Language cards, music CDs, DVDs, board books and more abound in the world of language learning. And the best thing is many of these resources are truly presented in a bilingual format.

So, while the debate between immersion vs. bilingual education rages on, do not get caught up in the frenzy and waste valuable time during the window of opportunity your child is experiencing when it comes to learning a second language. Make the most of the first five years of life as Dr. John Mike compels us to in his book Brilliant Babies Powerful Adults and give your children the opportunity to travel successfully in this very global society in which they are growing up.

Julia Penny asked:


 

The manager interview centers around 5 main areas of competence. These are the qualities or competencies that a successful manager displays, regardless of age, gender, industry or organization. Prepare for management interview questions that explore these competencies.

Provides Clear Direction

A good manager establishes and defines specific objectives and desired results. These are clearly communicated to staff and responsibility and resources appropriately delegated to achieve these outcomes. Ongoing controls are established and follow up implemented to ensure task and goal achievement.

Communicates Clearly and Openly

The manager should be open and direct in dealing with people. Staff want straightforward information from their managers or supervisors. Open communication develops an atmosphere of trust, essential to successful goal attainment.

Develops and Supports People

A skilful manager works with others to maximize performance. Coaching, mentoring, facilitating and delegating all play a role in staff development. Performance management and feedback are also key elements. Supporting staff is consistently rated as one of the most important aspects of effective management.

Makes Decisions When they are Needed

Good judgment and decision-making skills ensure that things get done. Although employees often want a say in things they don’t want endless debate and discussion. Effective managers are able to judge when it is time to get on with things and make a decision.

Motivates Staff

A manager that encourages staff to give of their best, recognizes good performance and rewards appropriately will be effective in getting things done and achieving meaningful results.

A manager interview uses behavioral questions to determine the candidate’s level of competency in these 5 areas. Prepare for your job interview by viewing the management interview questions that explore these 5 competencies including sample answers and guidelines.

Adel Awwad asked:


One of the ways to suggest an answer to the question of skill or luck is to watch the TV tournaments and notice how often some professional players seem to make the final table. Another clue to this question is taking stock of a local poker room and who seems to win more often than not. Some players are luckier than others, but it seems that skill over time wins out over luck. This is particularly true in cash games. Luck in tournaments does play a bigger part since one bad bet can end the tournament for a solid player. In tournaments you can often see a river card out of nowhere beat a very good starting hand of a professional and the amateur that lucked out continues in the game.

Many state legislatures have decided in favor of skill when letting poker rooms legally run in the state. The skill quality of the game overcame the prohibition against gambling. Watch the fate of any new player learning the game during the early stages of their learning curve and you can easily see that their skill level is suspect and they only seem to win with lucky draws or very powerful starting hands. They are lost when it comes to knowing when to bluff or play a marginal hand. Solid players who have a knack for doing the right move at the right time are the personification of poker skill. They rarely make a playing mistake and are only beat by an unexpected draw of luck or four running suited cards in the flop to give the Ace holding player a flush. You see many hands like this in online tournaments. Watching pairs of Aces get cracked online is an ugly display of how fickle the game can be at times.

Knowledge and experience are usually rewarded in a cash game and to a lesser degree in tournaments. The big reason for the difference is the player can rebuy in the cash game and when they lose their starting stack in a tournament they are knocked out of the tournament. Tournament play does seem to have a greater element of luck in its play. This is especially true when these Internet players are willing to go all in at the start of a hand. They play power poker and do not wait to see if they make their hand or not. In cases like this you may as well be playing showdown and not Holdem. Big pairs are likely to be over bet before the flop in tournaments and under bet in cash games. Patience also seems to be a bigger factor in cash games and less of an element in tournament play. Tournaments reward very aggressive play far more than cash games. As a group of players, cash game professionals are often more skillful players.

The betting level of the game also seems to bring more skill into play. The higher the betting level the more skill you will see in the play. Low-level games are hard to win with just skill, as there are too many players who will call even when the odds are very much out of favor toward them. No limit games will be filled with skillful players who know how to play. This is true in spades if the blinds are also very high. Players who are learning would be advised to stick with the lower level games until they have a better understanding of how the game should be played.

Making set up bets and bluffing are not the new player’s best play. Skilled players do it all of the time. They also seem to know exactly the amount they should wager to get their opponent to call. Getting the maximum amount of money for a winning hand is a learned skill and not a play that should be left to luck.

The other part of luck versus skill is luck cannot be counted on from day to day, but skill can be maintained from one session to the next. This alone may be the reason that familiar faces are seen at tournament after tournament. It is hard to beat a player who plays well and makes few mistakes. As the song goes, they know when to Holdem and when to Foldem. Mistake free play is hard to win against when a player is counting on lucky draws to bail them out of bad calls. Players sitting at a poker table make miracle draws every day. The difference from a skill standpoint is the odds are taken into account before the draw and the player knows that the play will depend on the odds. The player who depends on luck to win will be disappointed many times and does not even consider the odds of the play they are making. A blind eye to the odds of the play can be very costly over time and over many poker sessions.

Conclusions

Most solid players would come down on the side of skill in this debate. They saw it happen in their own play, as they got better at the game of poker. Early on they had games where they got very lucky, but over time they began to realize that they could not depend on luck to win. As they learned more about the inner workings of the game, they began to play with greater skill and their wins and losses were reversed to the win side of the ledger. Many of these same players have had two other significant advantages over the older players. They could read any of the really good books on poker that are now available. They could also play thousands of hands on the Internet at online poker rooms. The old time poker players had to spend a long time playing poker to log the same number of games and the experience that real time play gives to a player. This accounts to some degree for the young players doing so well in tournaments. Skill in the long run is the bread and butter to a winning poker player.

Richard Clear asked:


In the West many debates have surrounded the idea of Chi and if Chi really exists. Chi is a Chinese word that when simply translated into English means Energy and or Life-Force. The debate(s) typically starts around the so called manipulation of the chi life force energy. Often, these skills are seen demonstrated by advanced masters during cultural events, festivals or demonstrations etc.

Unfortunately, to the average person these skills then appear to be along the lines of a circus sideshow or magic tricks where trickery or illusion and sleight of hand are involved. Also, many of the techniques of Chi Energy activation and cultivation have been kept secret so little explanation for the seemingly impossible feats of skill are offered and this adds to the idea that some kind of illusion is behind the skills being presented and/or demonstrated. Much of the secrecy is due to specific groups (religious or trade guilds) or families having a history and tradition of skills and practice that is supposed to be kept within the group or family and not revealed to outsiders. This is a part of the heritage and cultural phenomenon of the Chinese people and only in very recent years have these practices begun to come into the modern world of scientific exploration, methodology and measurement.

Most modern Masters of the arts agree that all chi phenomena can be explained and fits well within the realm of modern physics. So, after many years of study and teaching it is my personal feeling that really it is the idea of mind over matter that is at the heart of the debate.

There are other factors that compound the problem of understanding the reality of Chi activation, cultivation and flow. The first problem to be addressed is a language barrier. There are words that describe specific aspects of Chi and Chi Kung (Energy Work) practice for which there is simply no direct translation into English and often Chinese teachers of Chi Kung aren’t proficiently fluent in English like a native speaker so although they may know some English there is still a communication barrier…

Continued in “The Chi Debate Part 2″

Chris Stout asked:


College is mental gymnastics at its finest. University campuses are alive with ideas, some scientifically provable, others entirely arguable. When you exist in this sphere of swirling minds you can’t help but feel energized by the exchanges you encounter. People all around you have something to say. Positions and postures come in all sorts of varieties. Questions are answered by questions that prompt more questions.

In this intense minefield of knowledge and half-knowledge, you need to have your wits about you. You need to be confident in your critical thinking abilities, and you have to be passionately willing and able to improve them.

Here are five ways to exercise your brain and stay academically athletic.

1. Discuss ideas outside of the classroom with intelligent people who enjoy a good debate.

College is a place for spirited arguments. When else are you going to have the opportunity to drink and discuss philosophy, economics, metaphysics, religion, politics and history on a nightly basis? Molten minds are forming all around you, and as the cerebral rocks cool, everyone wants to share. Get in on the debate, put in your two cents, no, better yet say a nickel’s worth. College is an open forum for any an all topics. Take advantage of it while you can.

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2. Take classes that intrigue you.

Nothing spurs analysis like interest. If you want to trick your brain into thinking that it’s in hobby mode, not study mode, and then you better be passionate about your subject matter. There must be something that you find fascinating. Whatever it is, enable that curiosity. Tap into genuine interest, and school work will start to feel instantly rewarding. By following your personal preferences, you’ll be able to delve more deeply into the material you study.

3. Take notes like your life depended on it.

Seriously. When you try to create a written historical record of your lecture, in real-time, the results are amazing. You focus more one what’s going on in the moment. You associate the information you process with audio and visual imprints. You have a concise record of everything you were exposed to, and you can review this material quickly and completely. Don’t forget to take notes as you read, and write all over your books!

Do your homework like you’re supposed to and come to class prepared. Subject-specific critical thinking is all about recalling information. The more ways you imprint, the more you retain. Make sure you like your classes, because you’re going to be asked to digest mass quantities of whatever material you’ve signed up to absorb. Talk about what you’ve learned with friends and classmates, but don’t get in fights over the periodic table. Respect everyone else’s opinion, but express your own. Realize that no matter what, there’s always more to learn

Nelson Tan asked:


I have a feeling some niche marketers found success in a way that is not publicized on the Net.

What is typically publicized is the way of the “niche blitz”: Cover as many niches as possible en masse and monetize related information. This aims for quantity. Under the duress of time, strategization is sacrificed, and the emphasis is on a repetitive pattern of setting up online systems for monetization through product sales, paid clicks and lead generation, but each one of these niches or systems are not going to pay highly by itself because of a certain ‘herd’ factor pertaining to this idea of a “niche blitz”. Moreover, the maximum human effort that can be possibly expended comes most likely from only 1 person, the marketer himself.

In the Internet Business Manifesto, Rich Schefren had stressed you’re going to hit a limit with all the work done solely by yourself. That’s not how companies grow. I’m already lying to myself when “I AM the company”.

Not only that, the end of your “niche blitz” can come when your niche sites become stale and die down because of one-time setup-and-leave-it effort or “repetition fatigue”.

Of late, because of the expertise I’m known for, business associates have come to propose ideas and work in need of a collaboration to generate leads online. So instead of chasing niches, I’m attracting them. Second, the economy of these offline businesses my associates are involved in definitely deals with a lot more money and possibly have a lesser degree of competition due to its lack of Internet pre-eminence (it may be the same case with competitors in the same industry), but if I should bring the business online, it will certainly be presented from a unique angle and with a unique taste.

The crucial characteristic to note is [b]any form of business that requires a team of players to run it is certainly big enough to share substantial profits for everyone even while your role within the team is a small bit part.[/b] It is what you should be looking for in evaluating a business because you can then fully focus on exercising a specialty skill (for example, lead generation) to the fullest instead of “doing everything from A to Z”, leading to fatigue and aimlessness.

So don’t be embarassed that you don’t consider yourself successful via the “niche blitz” method. Being more selective can be the more profitable way for you.

With this being said, perhaps there are highly profitable businesses within your neighborhood that with your help as an Internet Marketer and if the business permits, they can bring in a lot more profits online! You are merely piggybacking a business and injecting it with a new momentum towards Internet pre-eminence. If you’re not attracting opportunities then you should proactively approach the business owners instead and propose a win-win situation.

I was able to obtain a sample copy of a local businesses approach letter that Paul Evans has used to create an extremely successful business serving as the local Internet expert for businesses in his hometown. I want you to have a free copy.

This is the perfect complement to Andrew Cavanaugh’s special report, “Offline Gold For The Online Marketer”, about selling your Internet Marketing skills to businesses in your local city. The report starts by presuming the reader as a total stranger to business owners and how s/he goes about the process of striking a business partnership to the point when they would be happy to put checks into the reader’s pocket.

Years ago I did a little research out of curiosity and I reprint my personal summary: Out of the 95% of all US companies which are small businesses (categorized as having less than 100 workers), 66% do not believe the Web offers significant opportunities to fuel their growth just because they are local businesses. Only 23% anticipate that online sales will affect their bottomline. So if people say there’s still a lot of potential in online marketing, imagine what’s still being ignored in the REAL world!

If you know very well you would like to take the path of forging alliances with existing offline businesses, read Andrew’s special report to find out how to go about it in the most effective and efficient manner.

Ardeshir Sadehkhou asked:


References

Boyle, R., & Coltheart, V. (1996). Effects of irrelevant sounds on phonological coding in reading              comprehension and short-term memory. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental                              Psychology. 49A(2), 398-416. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi:                                                   10.1080/027249896392702

Collins, M. W., & Levy, B. A. (2008). Developing fluent text processing with practice:                             Memorial influences on fluency and comprehension. The Canadian Psychologist. 49(2),                     133-139. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1037/0708-5591.49.2.133

Furnham, A., & Allass, K. (1999). The influence of musical distraction of varying complexity                   on the cognitive performance of extroverts and introverts. European Journal of                             Personality. 13(1), 27- 38. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-    0984(199901/02)

Furnham, A., & Bradley, A. (1997). Music while you work: The differential distraction of            background music on the cognitive test performance of introverts and extroverts.                                 Applied Cognitive Psychology. 11(5), 445-455. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi:             10.1002/(SICI)1099-             0720(199710)

Klauda, S., & Guthrie, J. (2008). Relationships of three components of reading fluency to                         reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology. 100(2), 310-321.                                  Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1037/0022-0663.100.2.310

Oron-Gilad, T., Ronen, A., & Shinar, D. (2008). Alertness maintaining tasks (AMTs) while

driving. Accident Analysis and Prevention. 40(3), 851-860. Retrieved September 09,          2008. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2007.09.026     

Registrar, D., Darrow, A., Standley, J., & Swedberg, O. (2007). The use of music to enhance                    reading skills in second grade students and students with reading disabilities. Journal of                Music Therapy. 44(1), 23-37. Retrieved September 09, 2008.

Savolainen, H., Ahonen, T., Aro., M., Tolvanen, A., & Holopainen, L. (2008). Reading                 comprehension, word reading and spelling as predictors of school achievement and             choice of secondary education. Learning and Instruction. 18(2), 201-210. Retrieved                 September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2007.09.017

Smith, A. (2005). Aircraft and road traffic noise and children’s cognition. The Lancet,

 336(9487), 715-716. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1016/S0140- 6736(05)67174-7

Yao, S., Kuo-En, C., & Jung, Huang (2008). Improving children’s reading comprehension and     use of strategies through computer-based strategy training. Computers in Human      Behavior. 24(4), 1552-1571. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi:        10.1016/j.chb.2007.05.009

 

 

 

 

 

 

Testing the Effects of Music on Reading Comprehension Skills under Different Music Environments

The influence of background music on working cognitive memory has been a debate and has become a subject that has gotten many psychological researches involved. At the same time, thanks to the advancement of technology, we now can listen to music almost wherever we may end up going. Background music while studying has become an almost every day task for students. Many students listen to music while they study. Do we want our students listening to music while they study?

School achievement clearly predicts future educational attainment (Savolainen, Ahonen, Aro, Tolvanen and Hlopainen, 2008).  As we see on a daily basis, this habit is well accepted in most institutions and there is nothing that is being done to ban it, not to mention the fact there is no research with data that would back such arguments whether it’s for this habit of against it. (Darrow, Standley and Swedberg, 2007, p. 25) state in their study that according to (Tucker, 1981) “it is widely believed that music learning, music reading and/or, music participation enhance academic achievement, especially reading and math.”

Other researchers have measured the influence of background music on cognitive performance (Furnham and Allass, 1999), however that is considered as background noise which is playing from a stereo possibly located somewhere around the subject. Our research is measuring their comprehension abilities while the subject is listening to music with their headphones on.

To understand the affects of background music on reading comprehension we must be able to measure their comprehension and then control the environment with music.

The affects of music on concentration while driving has also been looked at to see if music could possibly have an effect on fatigue in which some drives might experience. (Gilad, Ronen and Shinar, 2007).

It is important to look further into the details of this habit that is little by little taking over most college students. Why would anyone not like listening to their favorite music while studying? However, will this practice hurt the individuals at the end of their study sessions by interfering with their comprehension skills while they read?

Though a number of studies have researched similar ideas, such as memory recall while listening to music, reading comprehension measurements while listening to music and while in complete silence, they haven’t so far tested for music in which the individual might find motivating to study in.

Reading in many ways is like driving, and includes many tasks that the individual must complete to comprehend the material well. Music could in a sense make you more alert just like it does to drives who listen to music when they drive.

Over a relatively short period of time, a reader progresses from laborious word by word decoding to quickly and accurately understanding the constructing meaning contained in sentences, paragraphs, and entire passages (Collins and Levy, 2008). According to (Gilad, Ronen and Shinar, 2007), psychological fatigue, on the contrary, is a subjective experience of disinclination to continue performing the task at hand. Therefore if music takes away the individuals focus away from the fatigue, it might actually do less harm than originally thought.

Once we take this important issue in account, we can then draw a closer line to the conclusion and expand our understanding of this habit and what it can and can’t do for the students.

This research will be similar to current researches in many ways, yet will have other ways to measuring for accuracy. It is our goal to only look at the short-term effects of music on reading comprehension. There are studies out in which the researchers have measured cognition between children who were raised in areas where the traffic noise and aircraft noise was high vs. children who lived in quite areas (Stanfeld, 2005). We are also staying away from measuring memory by making the passage available for the subjects to go back to whenever they might need to.

“Measuring for phonological codes in reading comprehension has been the subject of investigation for many years” (Boyle and Coltheart, 1996). As stated by this very article the answers to component which are essential for short-term memory has still remained unanswered. 

Throughout this study, it is predicted for the individuals who listen to music to have a lower reading comprehension level than the other two controls. The second group in which the individuals get to listen to their own favorite music is predicted to do better than the last group in which we choose the music, however worst than the group who do the task in silence.

It is also predicted that the music which is playing in the subject’s ear, whether it is their choice of music or ours will interfere with their comprehension and delay their understating of materials within the context of the passage.

For example, the subjects might need to read the same sentence(s) more than once in order to comprehend the full meaning of the author.

By confirming this hypothesis, one can decide on the study skills he or she might want to get used to. Once we reach our conclusion in this study, it will implicate the very fact that music is good but only to a certain degree such as driving. However it is an unnecessary tool for students to use while they study. If the comprehension levels are lower when the individual is listening to music, it will set the ground for major studies to follow and possibly making this an epidemic. This study is a very small step in summarizing and concluding this issue, and there hasn’t been a significant amount of evidence based on the research done. However, we wish to confirm our hypothesis as far as the effects of music on reading comprehension.

Although the majority of research show a strong correlation between music and cognitive tasks, and even succeeding and doing better in special education students, they fail to control for music the is the choice of the subject.

This study was designed to investigate the correlation between individuals who listen to music while reading a passage and compare their comprehension levels to the subjects who read their passages in silence and compare those levels with subjects who read passages while listening to the music they have chosen as their favorite music which in many cases is a type of music that will motivate them. 

Method

Participants

We will be using 60 participants for our study. We will use 20 participants for each of the three conditions. The participants will be assigned to the randomly assigned conditions in sets of 5.  We will have a total of 12 sets of participants, 4 sets per condition. We will randomly assign the conditions by writing each condition on pieces of paper, placing them in a bag, and drawing them out one by one.  Our selection procedure is based on the qualification of being able to read English fluently and participants must be a Psychology 150 and/or 250 students whom will be notified by the school’s research management website also known as “Sona System” once our research methods are approved by the board. The participants will get credit for their participation. The credit authorization will be filled out by us, the researcher, and we will also list their credits on the Sona System.

Materials

The participants will be given a 5 page booklet, a pencil and a stop watch for their timing purposes. We will also be using a desktop PC if available in the research rooms or we will provide a laptop for the purposes of playing a CD and accessing the World Wide Web to find the participant’s music of choice. The participants in the conditions with music will be advised to bring their own headphones, and if for any reason they forget to bring their own, they will be given a headphone which they can keep at the end of the research session.

Procedures

Our research is measuring the level of reading comprehension of the participants based on three different conditions.  Condition one involves no music, condition two involves listening

to music that has been chosen by the researcher and condition three involves the participants listening to the music of their choice. All conditions will require the participant to read the passage that is being provided to them. The participants will be given an introduction to what they will be doing.

This introduction will take just under one minute. They will be told about the booklet and the 10 questions which they will have to answer following reading the passage. We will tell the participants that they can go back to the passage whenever they feel necessary, since this is NOT a memory research. They will be informed that they can use any way they are most comfortable with, whether it be search and destroy method, in which the participant can read the questions first one by one then going through the passage to look for answers or they can read the passage then start to answer the questions and go back if they needed to.

In all three conditions, the participants will be given a total of 8 minutes to complete reading the passage and answering the questions. They will also be informed that they may NOT guess on any questions. If they can’t find it, they will have to move on or if they don’t have enough time to finish, they will have to leave the questions blank.

The researcher will ask the participant to place his/her pencil on the table and STOP after the 8 minutes has lapsed.  For the participants in which the condition requires listening to music we will provide ear phones which are either connected to a PC in the research rooms or a laptop

which will be able to play a CD.  For all participants we have decided to use Classical Jazz by Sade and the song is called “The Sweetest Taboo”.

The participants will be given 1 minute to come up with the 5 songs of their choice in the condition in which the participant uses the music of their choice. We will then take an extra

minute to find one of their songs on the World Wide Web. They will then also be given the headphones along with their favorite music playing ON REPLAY for the duration of the 8 minutes.

The total duration for the experiment will take no more than 15 minutes. Once the participants are done with the passage, they will get debriefed and credit will be given to them for their class participation purposes.

 

 

Results

Within all the groups, the total number of participants was 56. There were 46 females and 10 males.  There were 82% females and 18% males.  The mean of their ages was 20. The median of their ages was 19 and the mode of their ages stood at 18. The standard deviation of the ages was calculated to be 4.692. The minimum age was of the participants was 18 and the maximum age was 50. The variance age of the groups was 22.015. 

For Condition #1 in which we had No Music, we had 20 participants, which equaled to 35.7% of the total participants.  For Condition #2 in which the participants listened to Jazz Music, we had 18 participants, which equaled to 32.15% of the total participants.  For Condition #3 in which the participants chose their Own Music, we had 18 participants, which equaled to 32.15% of the total participants. 

Over 75% of the scores were above the 50%tile rank and 27% of the scores were perfect. Also, 5% got zero questions right. The mean score was 6.59. The median score was 6 and the mode score was 10. The standard deviation of the scores was calculated to be 2.84.

The minimum score was 0 and the maximum score was 10. The scores ranged from 0 to 10. The variance of the scores was 8.065.

Between all of our participants 53.36% were freshman totaling 31 students, and 23.21% were sophomores, totaling 13 students.  Also, 19.64% were juniors, totaling 11 student and 1.79% seniors totaling 1 student. From the whole participant pool, 46.43% of our subjects normally listened to music while studying which equals to 26 students.

A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was calculated on participants’ ratings of reading comprehension scores. The independent variable was the music conditions in which the participants read the article under. The dependent variable was the measurement of reading comprehension based on their scores. The higher the score the higher the participant’s reading comprehension level. The analysis was significant, F(2, 55) = 35.98, p < 0.05. A post-hoc analysis showed that the participants in the No Music condition outperformed both the participants in the Jazz Music condition and Their Own Music condition; also there was a significant difference between the participants in Their Own Music condition and the Jazz Music Condition where the participants in Their Own Music condition outperformed the participants in Our Music Condition.

 

Chris Stout asked:


Communicating in college is crucial. You have to be able to voice your opinions clearly and effectively on a daily basis. Here five tips for sharpening your communication skills in college.

1. Speak up

If no one can hear you, it won’t matter what you say. Make your points like you mean it. Clear your throat and address the class confidently. Be certain that you’ve thought for a moment before you opening your mouth. Once you’ve mentally organized what it is you want to say, execute the verbal expression of your thoughts as clearly as possible. Don’t go overboard with the volume (you don’t want to be a disturbance), but be sure that you can be heard by everyone.

2. Outside of the classroom, practice reading aloud to someone.

This tactic works wonders. When you read aloud to someone, you practice so many things. You get to hone your ability to speak loud and clear. You gain comfort you’re your ability to vocalize the text, and you can calm any concerns you may have about speaking in public. This latter part is why you have to take turns reading aloud to another person. Reading aloud by yourself is too easy. With another person present, the reading becomes a practical presentation.

3. Become well-informed.

Do you are homework as instructed, and read the assignments before you get to class. Communicating in your classes is difficult when you haven’t properly prepared. The more informed you are, the more pertinent you analysis will be. Don’t just speak so that you can hear yourself talk, have something valuable to say. The more work you’ve done, the more comfortable you will feel expressing your ideas.

4. Have educated debates outside of class.

Discuss what you are learning with others, and let others share what they have learned. You are not going to be able to take every single class that you want, so learn form other peoples experiences. Ask questions and exchange ideas. Practice articulating your positions in a comfortable environment. This way, when it’s time for you to speak up in class, you’ll have already had experience articulating you thoughts out loud.

5. Meet your professors during office hours.

If you want a better handle on the material you’re studying, go see your professor during office hours, You’ll learn added insights and extra contexts. You’ll be able to frame your ideas more effectively, because you will have added familiarity with the subjects you are studying. If you can debate your professors in their office, you can certainly voice your opinions in class.

Take college as an opportunity to hone your communication abilities. Practice writing, arguing, sharing and defending your ideas outside of class so that you can be a more effective communicator during section and lectures.

Richard Clear asked:


Another issue to be addressed is that some of the historical background on many of the practices are based on specific exercises and postures that were created to facilitate specific energetic processes and little explanation other than to just do the exercises is commonly taught to beginners.

High level Chi Kung skills like so many other advanced practices can require years of dedication and practice to develop and many potential students of Chi Kung start because they see a demonstration or hear about a high level skill and desire to learn it. Unfortunately, many Chi Kung teachers feel that the beginner must earn the right to learn the real material and see little reason to give any incentive to the beginner. So, often training begins with a simple practice that does not contain any real immediate Chi activation so when the first practice is to stand in one place and breathe every day for several months or longer or practice the 8 postures without any incentive many would be Chi Kung Masters simply quit due to not understanding or not having enough patience for the traditional process. As a result there are few truly skilled Westerners in this art form. We feel it is time for this situation to change.

We are pleased to offer a text for Westerners to get a real glimpse and basic understanding into the practices of Chi activation, cultivation and flow that will give the practitioner enough knowledge and incentive to advance their studies in this fascinating discipline. We offer various programs and workshops in Chi Energy training from beginner to advanced and much of what is in this text is at the beginning of many of our programs. The information in this book applied to Tai Chi, martial arts or energetic arts of any kind will greatly aid and benefit those practices. We hope you enjoy this book and that it begins or adds to your journey in the Mind Body and Spirit Healing Arts.

chilhyun asked:


keyword:

NEW YORK

Cancer

cellphones

 

NEW YORK – When Amy Morris’ twin boys, then 11, went on an academic trip to Washington last year, she agreed to give them cellphones at the program’s request. But this summer she was dismayed to learn that girls at her 8-year-old daughter’s day camp were using cellphones they’d taken along in their backpacks.

 

“We were outraged,” says the Connecticut mother, who adds that the camp didn’t know. “These girls think it’s a cute game. But it’s inappropriate, and it’s unnecessary.”

 

It’s a signature parenting dilemma of the wireless age: Should kids have cellphones? And how old is old enough? It pits our understandable desire to keep tabs on our offspring – not to mention make them happy – against the instinctive feeling that it’s simply, well, wrong for youngsters to spend their time chatting and texting over the airwaves.

 

Now, there’s further ammunition for Morris and other reluctant parents like her to stand firm: The warning last week by the head of a prominent cancer-research institute to his faculty and staff. Limit cellphone use, he said, because of the possible cancer risk – especially when it comes to children, whose brains are still developing.

 

The warning from Dr. Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, was based on early, unpublished data and came despite numerous studies that haven’t found a link between increased tumors and cellphone use.

 

But it’s struck a nerve among parents who already have other reasons to resist their children’s entreaties.

 

“Now we hear about this possible medical risk,” says Marybeth Hicks, an author, columnist and mother of four. “I couldn’t possibly know if it’s real or not. But I know that it’s probably not necessary for most children to have a cellphone.”

 

To her, “it’s part of this whole rush to adulthood – Hello Kitty backpacks for third-graders have cellphone pockets in them! Marketers have skillfully created a groundswell of begging among kids – and we all know that begging can work.”

 

Hicks, whose book “Bringing Up Geeks: How to Protect Your Kid’s Childhood in a Grow-Up-Too-Fast World,” is about just such problems, has personal experience with persistent children.

 

“My 10-year-old daughter thinks she’s deprived,” Hicks says. “She’s been saying she’s the only one at school without a phone, and it’s actually getting to be true.” And her son, she says, was the only kid in his eighth-grade class without a phone. (He just got one, right before freshman year in high school.)

 

Hicks, who lives in East Lansing, Mich., is aware that some parents feel cellphones are an essential security tool for their kids.

 

But, she says, “I always know where my kids are. A cellphone is a tool to negotiate the world once you have the responsibility to be out in the world on your own.”

 

Morris, of Weston, Conn., has decided that for her own kids, middle school is about the right time. “My boys are starting to walk home alone sometimes,” she says. “I want them to have a phone.”

 

Being boys, though, they tend to forget the darned things all the time – especially in situations when they actually need them.

 

So far, Morris has avoided giving one to her younger child, she says, not an easy thing in a society where kids, especially girls, are so sensitive to social pressures. “I think a lot of parents in this country just give in,” she says. She’s especially concerned about the rampant text messaging among the younger set.

 

Statistics from the Pew Research Center show just how deeply ingrained in our daily lives cellphones have become: Fully 78 percent of all adults own them, including 86 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds and 55 percent of Americans 65 and older. Pew doesn’t compile statistics on those under 18.

 

Text messaging, on the other hand, is the province of the young: 74 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds do it but only 6 percent of the 65-plus crowd.

 

Should the latest medical news cause huge concern among parents who have given in? “If you’ve got good reasons for them to have it, I’d go ahead,” says Frank Barnes, a professor who chaired a recent report on the subject. However, he added, “they’ve probably got other things they should be doing.”

 

Ultimately, parents have to make their own rules – but that’s difficult when the social pressure is so strong, says Lisa Bain, executive editor of Parenting magazine. “The age is creeping down,” she says. “Girls tend to get them younger. It’s become a status symbol – it makes them feel grown up.”