7 Essay Exam Questions - University

[quote=jhoijhoi]Hey guys, just thought I'd share my mock essay exam answers. Some of the topics are interesting and I figured maybe some of you may add some insight. Feel free to discuss any of the questions I've answered. I'll update this post once I finish the last two questions. These are just drafts so far. I can't bring in any notes, need to memorise them 8D Remember, these are only notes. ----------------------------------- 7 Possible Exam Questions for EDB003 - Semester 2/2012 13 Nov – 08:30am – KG-B428A 2 hours On the day of the examination - four of the following seven essay questions will be listed – you will need to complete three (each in essay format) • Logical response to question supported by unit material • Clear evidence of engagement with unit materials: references made to specific content from lectures and set readings • Appropriate socio-cultural lens used to critique unit materials • Appropriate academic writing style including grammatical structure, language and tone ------------------------------------ 1. Gordon Tait argued in his lecture that contemporary schooling disciplines and governs the practices of both students and teachers. Discuss. [spoiler]• Hierarchal Observation > developed from the panopticon • Modern Disciplinary Structure: Individualisation > Differentiation > Normalisation • Discuss the role of psychology in the governance of subjectivity [/spoiler] 2. New forms of discrimination are sometimes linked to processes of Othering – discuss how such discriminatory practices impact both at the level of the school and the wider community? [spoiler]DISCRIMINATION > WHAT IS IT? Discrimination can manifest in many forms, the most common of which is racism, and as a by-product, “othering”. Cultural diversity within the Australian classroom is high; it is rare to find any one classroom that does not consist of a multitude of students from different cultural backgrounds. However, inequality is reproduced over time and is shown to be systemic. Different cultures within the Australian classroom can often be treated differently; either favourably, or negatively. Racism is one of the key issues facing education, as it is institutionally embedded, interpersonally enacted and ingrained in the fabric of society. Conventional understandings of racism are usually linked with prejudice on the basis of physical appearance, nationality and language/linguistic stereotypes. PERCEPTIONS OF RACISM > HOW ARE TEACHERS AFFECTED? Racism is complex and multi-faceted, leading analysts to recognise that both racial identities and racism might be articulated and experienced in a range of different ways. Racism can lead to segregation, and racial slurs can escalate to physical violence and negative consequences, which furthers the feelings of inequality harboured by ethnic minorities. If teachers do not challenge existing boundaries of student and colleague knowledge about difference, this endless cycle of discrimination and othering will continue to negatively impact the future of students who may be othered. HOW TO LESSEN THE CHANCES OF DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICES WITHIN A SCHOOL SETTING Educators of today have a moral responsibility to move beyond the limits of racial context to a social context that enables students to de-legitimise the mainstream or dominant culture’s power over the “other”. In order to lessen the chances of discriminatory practices within the department of education, schools need to address the power they possess and ensure that environments are created where discrimination is not tolerated, students are enabled to develop social and emotional skills needed to believe in themselves, and both teachers and students show a consideration and value for others in a culturally diverse Australia.[/spoiler] 3. Extremely complex ethical decisions are woven into the everyday lives of teachers. Examine this statement from both a theoretical and practical viewpoint. [spoiler]WHAT ARE MORAL ETHICS? Theoretically, the act of morality is attaching emotional responses to certain acts. A person is moral if that person follows the moral rules of society; a person is amoral if that person breaks these rules, or does not know about or care about the moral rules. Ethics is a little more complicated. A person is ethical if that person is aware of the basic principles governing moral conduct and acts in a manner consistent with those principles. Morals ethics are similar to the four cardinal virtues; wisdom, fortitude, temperance and justice. STRANDS OF ETHICS (META-ETHICS, NORMATIVE ETHICS, APPLIED ETHICS) There are three main strands of ethics: meta-ethics, normative ethics and applied ethics. An example moral debate to explain the normative strand (which is the ethical principle most people practice) is as follows, “it is good to be honest”. Normative ethics revolve around determining the content of moral behaviour and grounds of which individuals should follow, such as action-guides that provide guidelines for determining specific course of moral action. When humans make normative judgments, they have reasons for saying that X is particularly good, though Y is not; there are certain properties which X possesses and which Y does not possess, and the presence or absence of just those properties differentiate our judgments. Normative ethically, “it is good to be honest” can be argued either way, as long as the argument against a moral is justified to the individual. ETHICAL DECISIONS IN THE CLASSROOM In a practical viewpoint, whilst moral value can exist independent of human emotion, most humans can “sense” wrongness. In this sense, morality is difficult to split into subjective or objective. Extremely complex ethical decisions are woven into the everyday lives of teachers and often the choices teachers make can be argued to be ethical or unethical, for example removing a disruptive student from the classroom every day; does the student not have a right to learn? Teachers play an important role on student development of morals, as teachers are often the first role model that students observe for ethical and moral behaviour. Examples of poor ethical decisions can lead to disorders within the classroom, such as lack of trust, and reduce student education. This snowball effect can lead to further problems in the student’s life and create negative effects on society.[/spoiler] 4. Describe the manner in which the contemporary discourse of Advanced Liberalism has influenced schooling and changed teachers’ work. [spoiler]• Advanced Liberalism > What is it? • Progression of Liberalism through the education system • What does this mean for teachers/schools? Advantages/disadvantages of this evolved system of governance?[/spoiler] 5. Why is it important for teachers and their students to have a critical understanding of the relationship between the media and moral panic? [spoiler]MORAL PANIC > WHAT IS IT? Moral panic begins as a heightened level of concern over a condition, person, or behaviour of a certain group. With the rise of concern, there is an increased level of hostility towards the group that is now perceived as a threat to societal values, morals and interests. Consensus via substantial and widespread agreement of the majority of the society indicates that something must be done about this group, or behaviour. The community discuss the threat and organist to deal with it; they make demands on local, state and national representatives, they appeal to the public to recognise the treat and join the struggle against it. Figures of high authority, such as editors, bishops, politicians and others, address the issue publicly. Drawing public attention to the matter increases the disproportionality; mass media presents the group or behaviour in a stylised and stereotypical fashion that indicates there are more people participating in this group/behaviour than there probably are. Moral panic increases with demonstrations, such as pickets, boycotts and even acts of violence, until socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnosis and solutions; ways of coping are evolved and resorted to, including tougher/renewed rules, intense public hostility, condemnation and arrests. Eventually the condition disappears, submerges and/or deteriorates until it is forgotten by society. Depending on the volatility of the moral panic, the condition can remain dormant and reappear years later. MEDIA > WHAT PART DOES IT PLAY IN SPREADING MORAL PANIC? The media is the main mass of communication readily available in society, as such, it is the major contributing factor towards spreading moral panic. The media uses specific techniques in order to position the audience in a way that will create the best reaction from the story. Some of these techniques include: shot types, camera angels, locations, music and sound effects, images, association, amplification/simplification, othering (“us” vs “them), identification and proximity. Branding individuals/groups within the media has important consequences such as providing a self-fulfilling prophecy; this includes limiting social interaction with the group that has been demonised, but also promotes identification for those groups with their lifestyle and future behaviour. Socialist constructivist approaches tells us that media presents crime, violence and victimisation simplistically and decontextualized rather than the complex events they actually are, which in turn, creates a “good vs evil” and “us vs them” theory. WHAT RELEVANCE DOES MEDIA/MORAL PANIC HAVE IN THE CLASSROOM? Media literacy education within the classroom emphasises the acquisition both of cognitive knowledge about how media are produced and distributed and of analytical skills for interpreting and valuing media content. The Australian Curriculum dictates that students should develop abilities to decode, evaluate, understand and analyse messages within media texts of different forms and genres in order to awaken an awareness of social, cultural, political and economic implications of media text. This appreciation of media should develop an individual’s critical thinking autonomy, which in turn allows students as consumers of media to be aware of how the media can represent issues and position an audience. In addition to increasing the critical literacy of students, awareness of moral panic in the media informs teachers of the possibility that the students themselves may be victims of moral panic.[/spoiler] 6. Discuss the need for teachers to have a better understanding of the dynamics of poverty and disadvantage in relation to low SES schooling? [spoiler]POVERTY > WHAT IS IT? Poverty is an issue resulting from a multitude of factors, such as access to public institutions, but the most significant being low income and economic situations. Low incomes can vary in character (shared in a household or individual), flow (regular or intermittent) or amount (currency or goods) and economically, people can be poor, depending on what they own. The most common form of poverty suffered in Australia is poverty that results from the inequality of the high-wage economy. COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT POVERTY > HOW DOES THIS AFFECT TEACHER PERCEPTIONS OF STUDENTS? There are many common misconceptions about poverty and each stereotype affects teacher perceptions or expectations of underprivileged students. Examples include: “poor people are unmotivated with weak work ethic”, “poor parents are uninvolved in their children’s learning as they do not value education/are linguistically deficient”, and most commonly, “poor people tend to abuse drugs and alcohol”. A teacher who even unconsciously thinks these thoughts will have an altered perception of students; they may favour their attentions on richer children, they could assign homework without clarifying if all students have equitable access to learning resources, such as computers and the Internet, but perhaps the largest risk is ignoring students with a lower economic status. STRATEGIES TO COMBAT/ALLEVIATE THE EFFECTS OF STUDENT POVERTY Teachers need to have a better understanding of the dynamics of poverty and disadvantage in order to practice strategies to combat or alleviate the effects of student poverty. Education is the staircase of employment prospects; the less educated a person is, the less likely they are to climb that staircase to the jobs that would place them above the poverty line. As such, it is important for teachers to continue reaching out to low socio-economic status families even if they appear unresponsive. Teachers need to educate themselves about class and poverty in order to avoid assigning low-income students to the special education or low academic tracks within their school. There is a clear correlation between lower test results for poor children, and on an individual basis, teachers can attempt to ensure all their pupils are receiving a fair chance as success, not just in tests, but for life.[/spoiler] 7. To what extent is it necessary for teachers to be aware of legal rights of the child as well as their own legal position? [spoiler]DUTY OF CARE > TEACHER’S MORAL OBLIGATION UNDER LAW TO PROTECT STUDENTS Teachers need to have a keen awareness of the legal rights of the child, as well as their own legal position within an educational setting. All Australian citizens are governed by Common law and follow a set of codes and moral obligations specific to society as a whole, and then independent rules and regulations of an institute. Once employed by an education facility, teachers have a duty of care wherein they must undertake the care, control and supervision of young people in a variety of circumstances and take reasonable steps to minimise the risk of injury to a child in reasonably foreseeable events. This duty of care is not to ensure against injury, but to take reasonable care to prevent it. CODE OF CONDUCT > WHAT TEACHERS CAN LEGALLY DO AND WHY In addition to a teacher’s duty of care towards a student, they must also follow the Code of Conduct, which provides a framework of ethical principles, obligations and standards that guide employees work performance and professional standard. This code stresses the importance of personal behaviour management, exercising a leadership role towards students as a supervisor and reporting or discouraging discrimination, harassment or harm to a student or colleague. If a teacher suspects a student has been harmed at school or outside of school, the teacher is lawfully required to contact the principal, who may then contact the police. APPLICATIONS WITHIN/OUT THE CLASSROOM > WHO GETS IN TROUBLE? In order to ensure an action taken by a teacher is legal, they must ask themselves whether they can adequately defend their action to their supervisor, the department and the community if the situation became publicly known. For example, if a student breaks their leg on school grounds due to jumping off a balcony, a teacher must first ask the student if it is okay to touch them, before doing so. Whilst the teacher may then not be liable for damages for the student injury, there are many cases where the teacher can still be found responsible and the school foots the blame. If the teacher was supposed to be supervising the area, and allowed the student to climb the railings of the balcony, they can be sued for negligence of duty of care. If the area was unsupervised, the school can be sued – depending on whether the jury or judge agree this sort of injury was foreseeable.[/spoiler][/quote]

[quote=DillButt64]for the discrimination one you should go into sexism too, its a pretty big thing imo at american schools[/quote]

[quote=sirell]Oh wow, the topic focuses are slightly different from what we get in the UK. I don't think I can lend any help for fear of digression.[/quote]

[quote=jhoijhoi]Dill: Sexism isn't really a problem in Australian schools. Our schools have bigger problems with racism and class divisions. I originally was going to cover a broad variety of discrimination, but the lecturer recommended that I should focus on one specific branch. Sirell: :3 I'm open to discussion on any of the questions. I'm only seeking to broaden my own learning.[/quote]

[quote=DillButt64]oh ok i personally prefer to write about multiple examples/branches of things when i write essays but good luck on all the essay writing =o[/quote]

[quote=Minho]GL with the essay! :)[/quote]

[quote=Pheyniex]i'm used 2 manipulate equations, not writing books... ^^' 1. can't u jusif discrimination with plain ignorance, besides prejudice/sereotiping..? 2. u just condition what is morally correct to what seems good rather than what the societi/group aims for?[/quote]

[quote=jhoijhoi]Dill: I have 2 hours to hand-write 3 essays in exam conditions with no notes. It's not possible to go broad in this case. Raine: Thanks! Pheyniex: Discrimination is discrimination based on difference. If you're ignorant to difference, how can it be discrimination? You can't be ignorant of aspects of life, there is always a positive or negative factor. To have rich people, you need poor. To have healthy people, there needs to be unhealthy people. If you are knowledgeable about who you are and what you *aren't*, you can't be ignorant.[/quote]

[quote=Keondre]Wow jhoi, you really have your work cut out for you :/ Good luck, hope you finish the essays in time! I know you can do it :)[/quote]

[quote=DillButt64]oh i didnt know that, in that case i would only write about one branch[/quote]