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Discuss the history of social psychology and describe the critical role this field of study has played in helping us to understand the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals throughout its evolution.

Discuss the history of social psychology and describe the critical role this field of study has played in helping us to understand the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals throughout its evolution. Which key research developments have helped to define social psychology and differentiate it from other fields of study? What theoretical constructs are inherent in social psychology principles?

Assess the role of ethics in behavioral research. What are some of the ethical dilemmas that researchers face? In your response, provide at least one example of an ethical violation that occurred in a human research study and describe the methodology used (e.g., observational, correlational, experimental). What changes could have been made to improve the ethical nature of the research?

Include at least one reference in your post that is properly cited according to APA format. Respond substantively to at least two of your classmates’ posts.

The Acting Self

As Feenstra (2013) states in your textbook:

“Social psychologists are interested in who we are. We know a great deal about ourselves, and that knowledge affects how we process information and view the world around us. The self is a powerful force. The self affects how we feel, what we think we can do, and what we in fact do.” (pg. 52).

Expanding on the quotation above, describe how individuals develop a self-concept and self-schema. Discuss the cultural, social, and environmental influences on that development. In what ways does our sense of self determine how we think about others and how we interact with individuals and groups of people? What is the significance of the acting self? In your response, be sure to address at least three of the key concepts presented in Table 2.1 of the reading.

Which key research developments have helped to define social psychology and differentiate it from other fields of study? What theoretical constructs are inherent in social psychology principles?

Include at least one reference in your post that is properly cited according to APA format. Respond substantively to at least two of your classmates’ posts.

The Acting Self

As Feenstra (2013) states in your textbook:

Discuss Conflict Capabilities Questionnaire

Conflict is a fact of life, something that everybody must deal with now and then, both on the job and in one’s personal life. This assignment asks you to assess your own ability to manage conflict. You will complete three activities that ask you to think critically and introspectively about your experience, beliefs, values, and skills. Then, you will write a short paper that summarizes what you have learned about your own capacity and preparedness for managing conflict.

Part I:

Complete Exhibit 8.1: Conflict Capabilities Questionnaire (pp. 123–124). You are only required to complete the questionnaire for yourself. You are not required to complete this questionnaire for another person. You may simply write down your answers for each question (and the associated points) on a blank sheet of paper or Microsoft Word document.

Note your total score on a sheet of paper or Microsoft Word document. You may also wish to note any observations about your thought process, the questionnaire, or your responses. This information will help you to write your paper in Part IV.

Part II: Conflict Preparedness Worksheet

Download this Conflict Preparedness Worksheet.

Complete the worksheet according to the provided instructions.

Part III: Leadership Traits

Consider the six leadership traits of effective conflict managers that are listed in this reading: openness, self-awareness, persistence, consideration of others, critical reasoning, and integrity. As you read about these traits, consider the following questions:

Why is each characteristic important when it comes to managing conflict?
For each characteristic, can you think of a leader who best exemplifies it?
Which characteristic is your strength, and in which area do you need to improve?

You may wish to note your responses and any other thoughts you have while reviewing this section on a sheet of paper or blank Word Document.

Part IV: Summary Paper

After completing Parts I–III, you should have a better understanding of the factors that influence conflict management preparedness and of your own beliefs, values, and capacity as a leader and conflict manager.

Write a 700- to 1,050-word paper that summarizes what you have learned about your own capacity and preparedness for managing conflict. Your paper should answers the following questions:

How did you score on the Conflict Capabilities Questionnaire? According to this questionnaire, are you ready to manage conflict? Do you believe this assessment is accurate? Why or why not?
What did you learn from the Conflict Preparedness Worksheet? What are your dominant perceptions of and values about conflict? If another person also participated in this assessment, was his or her perception similar to your own? Why or why not?
Which of the six leadership characteristics identified in Part III is your strength? Is there one area in which you need to improve?
Overall, are you prepared to manage conflict? Are there certain types of conflict for which you are most prepared?

Explain why the quality, productivity, and profitability are important elements in the planning process.

Develop an organizational chart for the proposed organization.
1. Include the title of positions and a brief description of the positions’ duties and responsibilities.
2. Figure 7.7 in Chapter 7 of the text provides an example of how to develop the organizational chart.
Define the organization’s vision, mission, and values.
Outline the basic planning process for the organization, and describes how the three levels of management influence this process.
Explain why the quality, productivity, and profitability are important elements in the planning process.
Evaluate the relationship between the human resource planning activities and the overall organizational strategy.
Discuss the philosophy of management that will be applied to the management of the organization and how the structure of the organization will foster a positive work environment where employees will be motivated and productive.
Compose the steps of control and types of controls included in the control process for the organization.

Writing the Operational Plan

The Final Paper:

Must be 8 to 10 double-spaced pages in length (excluding the title and reference pages), and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Must include a title page with the following:
1. Title of paper
2. Student’s name
3. Course name and number
4. Instructor’s name
5. Date submitted
Must begin with an introductory paragraph that has a succinct thesis statement.
Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought.
Must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis.
Must use at least five scholarly sources from the Ashford Online Library, in addition to the text.
Must document all sources in APA style, as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Must include a separate reference page, formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Narrate a story about Hoop Dreams;

By now you should have read the beginning of the book and watched Hoop Dreams; so I want you to think about what you’ve done so far within the context of the word reality as it is constructed in 2015 (which is far different than how it was constructed when the book was written and when the film was made). Think about Hoop Dreams especially. It is often called the best documentary of all time, and that is because of its raw adherence to the real lives of the two boys who are at the center of the narrative. The film follows them for years and does not necessarily have an agenda to present them in any light other than how they go about their daily lives. At the same time, modern TV does the same thing in some shows that are not reality shows; they are fiction (think of The Office, or Parks and Recreation, or Modern Family, or even the new Muppets Show). Shows like these are following in the footsteps of films like Hoop Dreams to present the daily lives of people who we are supposed to believe COULD BE real. So your assignment:

In a two page paper (double-spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman font, 1″ margins all around), write Hoop Dreams as if it were a fictional TV show. You can do this in a new of ways. You can write a script, you can write a narrative, you can write a biography of the boys, basically anything you want. But you need to include aspects of modern day TV; for example–jokes, gags, drama, relationships, tension. How would a show like Hoop Dreams look, what would it sound like, what would you put in the script (or narrative, etc.) to make the audience interested?

The reason I want you to do this is for you to start thinking of the word ‘reality’ in a different kind of way. It’s become a hyper-real world, where real is un-real, un-real is real, and who cares about the difference? So do whatever you want to the film, but turn it into something like The Office, or Modern Family. Use the real characters from the film, use the real setting, the real story. But make it modern, and make it for people who would normally watch a reality-show style sitcom (or drama) in 2015.

How did what you learned from the interview compare with what you learned from this week’s readings.

week, you have the option of interviewing one of the following:

An older student or adult who is bilingual, about the experience of learning two languages: English and his or her native language
A teacher who works with young English language learners about children’s experiences of learning two languages at the same time
A foreign language teacher about his or her students’ experiences while learning a second language

The goal is to increase your understanding of the complicated and challenging experience of learning and using English and another language.

To complete the assignment:

Plan: Choose a person to interview. Explain that the purpose of the interview is for your own educational development, and obtain permission to tape-record the conversation. Here are tips for planning the interview:

Agree on a specific date and time. (Plan for 30 minutes.)
Use a tape recorder, as you did for the observations in Weeks 2 and 3. Test your recorder before the interview to be sure it works.
Review information from this week’s readings about second language learning.
Click on the link below to download, print out, and review the document you will use to record your interview, which includes sample questions to ask:

Part 3: Second Language Learning Interview Guide

Review the appropriate questions in advance. You may want to ask the introductory questions when you are setting up the interview, to get a sense of the person and his or her experience before the interview.
Think about other questions that are not on the list you would like to ask.
Take notes during the interview on key points you want to remember.
Be respectful of your subject’s experiences and points of view.
Remember to thank your interview subject for his or her time.

Interview: Ask questions from the Interview Guide. Listen carefully to the person’s answers. You may need to ask for examples to help clarify a point, or follow up with a “why” or “how” question. Although you will record the conversation, also take notes on the person’s answers. Some additional guidelines:

Keep your attention focused on the interviewee.
Remember that this is one person’s experience and perspective. Although it can be informative and instructive, keep that uniqueness in mind as you listen to and later reflect on the interview.
Be respectful of the person’s time. Stick to the time period you agreed to for the interview. Be sure to thank the person for his or her cooperation.
Remember that this interview experience is intended as an opportunity to learn.

Reflect on the interview. Review your notes and listen to the tape recording of the interview as many times as necessary to complete the following:

How did what you learned from the interview compare with what you learned from this week’s readings?
How might you be able to use what you learned from the interview in your future work with children and families? (These might be specific tips and strategies for helping a child who is learning English, or a heightened awareness of the problems and challenges that children learning a native language and English may face.)

Note: Do not use the real names of the interviewee or the children or families discussed in the interview. Use only first names, initials, or fictitious names to protect their privacy.

Assignment length: 2–3 pages

Learning Resources

Required Resources

Course Text: The Development of Language
- Chapter 4, “Semantic Development”
- - Read “Assessing Vocabulary in Bilingual Children” (pp. 105–106)
  - Read “Word-Meaning Awareness: Humor, Metaphor, and Irony” (pp. 108–109)
- Chapter 8, “Variation in Language Development: Implications for Research and Theory”
- - Read “Linguistic Factors” (pp. 253–254)
Article: Fostering Second Language Development in Young Children (PDF)
Article: Cultural Diversity and Language Socialization in the Early Years (PDF)
Article: Understanding the Impact of Language Differences on Classroom Behavior (PDF)
Language Development Face-to-Face: Observations and Interviews

Part 3: Second Language Learning Interview Guide

Bilingual Older Student or Adult or

Teacher of Young English Language Learners or Foreign Language Teacher

Interview with an Older Student or Adult Who Is Bilingual on the Experience of Learning English and a Native Language

To begin your interview, ask such introductory questions as:

What is your native language?

At what age did you learn English?

Were you fluent in your native language when you began learning English?

Did you learn English mainly in school or through another means?

Did you speak English or your native language at home?

Then engage in a discussion that will enable you to increase your knowledge about the experience of learning English and a native language. Consider your own assumptions/misconceptions; think about similarities and differences between what you have read in the Learning Resources and what this person shares; and gain additional insights. Here are some questions to spark the conversation:

Please describe what your experience was like learning English.

Do you think your experience was fairly typical or unusual, and why?

Were there aspects of your native culture, such as social rules for language use that had an impact on the process of learning English? If so, in what way?

What do you wish your family or other important adults had known to help make the experience of learning English easier for you?

What do you wish your teachers had known to make the experience easier or more pleasant for you?

What advice would you give to family members of young children who are learning English and their native language?

What advice would you give to teachers and other professionals who work with young children and bilingual families?

How do you view being bilingual today?

Interview with a Teacher of Young English Language Learners (ELLs)

or a Foreign Language Teacher

To begin your interview, ask such introductory questions as:

What ages/grades of children/students do you work with?

What are the native languages of the children you teach? or What language(s) do you teach?

How long have you been teaching in your current position?

What do you enjoy most about your work?

Why did you choose to go into this field?

Then engage in a discussion that will enable you to increase your knowledge about experiences for young children/older students in learning a second language. Consider your own assumptions/misconceptions; think about similarities and differences between what you have read in the Learning Resources and what this teacher shares; and gain additional insights. Following are

some questions to spark your conversation:

Thinking about the children/students you work with, what are common stages that you observe in the process of learning a second language?

From your experience, what influences how easily a child/student learns a second language?

How does culture influence the process of learning a second language? (For the ELL teacher, ask for an example for a child learning English.)

What advice would you give to parents/other important adults of young children who are learning English and their native language, or about students learning a second language in general?

What do you wish you had learned while you were preparing to work with ELL children or foreign language students?

How do you keep current on the latest research and thinking in your field?

What is the most valuable lesson that you have gained about working with children/students learning a second language so far in your career?

What advice would you give to students like myself whose future work may involve supporting children and families, many of whom are bilingual or becoming bilingual?

Explain managerial decision making assessment . [Pin It] question 1

Research Kurt Lewin’s model for change. Then, discuss the three-staged de-biasing process (unfreezing, change, and refreezing) and explain the mechanisms that make each of them hard to implement. In your discussion, include how you believe such a process can help you, personally, to improve your decision-making.

question 2

Bazerman and Moore suggest that we should understand the biases of others. Discuss this concept in terms of why it is important for us to understand other peoples’ biases. In your discussion, focus on how you might be able to improve your decision-making in a group setting.

question3

Conduct an Internet search for information on linear decision-making. Then, discuss your findings and contrast it with what the authors offer in the textbook. Next, discuss how a linear decision-making model could have helped you in making a past decision.

question 4

Describe the concept of analogical reasoning. Then, considering your last purchase decision, discuss how analogical reasoning could have helped you to improve your decision and increase your satisfaction with the product or service that you purchased.

Explain. What about the literary influences on Chris; how do these influence Chris’ (or our own) conception of the wild?

For this paper reflect on why “the wild” appeals to us. Despite all the comforts of modern life, many people are drawn to the experience the wild for transcendent experience or for the thrill of high-risk activities. Compare Chris McCandless to others (e.g., Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Everett Ruess or Jon Krakauer himself) in describing their experience of the wild. In our textbook, Cox & Pezzullo claim that nature or the wild is a “symbolic construction.” Explain. What about the literary influences on Chris; how do these influence Chris’ (or our own) conception of the wild? What do you make of different people’s assessment or evaluation of Chris & his trip, e.g., Sherry Simpson “I Want to Ride on the Bus Chris Died In”?

Interpretation, autonomy, and transformation: Chinese pedagogic discourse in a cross-cultural perspective

have been normalized as their own. In stating this, I am not only refer-

ring to the fact that modern Chinese language has embraced new terms

translated from the West as well as appropriating syntactical structures

for assimilating the particularities of Western-derived notions, but, more

importantly, to the fact that the ways of doing things with words have

been fundamentally changed (cf. Chuang 2007). Discursive practices in

law, media, education, government, management, business, organization,

etc. are, to a large degree, ‘translated’ or imagined from the West (Liu

1995).

The transformation of pedagogic discourse is perhaps the most per-

vasive: the Western educational system that accompanied Western

knowledge became the only legitimate system of study and schooling.

Confucianism as a form of pedagogy was thoroughly marginalized. The

discourse of modern epistemology—in terms of ways of looking, valu-

ing, and thinking—dominates most Chinese academic circles. The

superiority of modern epistemology is so accepted that even those who

wish to affirm the traditional discourse feel it necessary to justify them-

selves by showing how the Chinese world-views contained the seeds of

modernity even before the advent of the West (cf. Zhang 2009). The

tradition could be affirmed only insofar as it already had modern ele-

ments.

With the distance created by the history and space, people lose the

memory of when, where, and for what reasons such a discourse was

imported or imagined, and what social forces enacted such a process. The

Chinese people may take it for granted that the language they speak and

write is the language of their own, without being aware that others’ dis-

course has taken on a fundamental and deep significance in the formation

of Chinese social life. As Bakhtin (1981: 342) put it:

Another’s discourse performs here no longer as information, directions,

rules, models and so forth—but strives rather to determine the very bases

of our ideological interrelations with the world, the very basis of our behav-

iour; it performs here as authoritative discourse, and an internally persua-

sive discourse.

For many people education in the Chinese context is thought to be

very different from the Western, with Chinese students characterized as

dependent and silent, teachers as authorities and being ‘all-knowing’, and

learning being directed to memorization and literary interpretation (Har-

vey 1985, Biggs 1996, Cortazzi and Jin 1999, Kim 2009). In contrast

with the Western educational tradition, where students are encouraged to

develop analytical and speculative abilities by engaging in disputation and

interaction, in the Confucian heritage ‘the education systems are mainly

oriented towards conserving knowledge, and the learning approach fos-

tered emphasizes the reproductive ability of students’ (Ballard and Clan-

chy 1991: 11). This is usually thought to be the heritage of the Chinese

traditional culture, especially that of Confucius, where education con-

sisted primarily of rote memorization of the classics and students were

usually required to demonstrate the ability of text interpretation rather

than challenging a particular premise. This pattern of learning has been

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Z. WU

interpreted as a way to construct a hierarchical authoritative order of soci-

ety. Merson (1990: 86) comments that the purpose of the scholar class

was to create ‘bureaucratic generalists familiar with an accepted ethical

outlook and body of knowledge, not with the growth of knowledge or

with academic specialization’.

Rhetoric blaming the Confucian heritage for educational failure in

China continues to be commonplace. Nonetheless, many people also

observe a paradox in the Chinese behaviour seen as ‘rote learning’. Thus,

Watkins and Biggs (2001: 277) admit that ‘teachers in Chinese class-

rooms produce positive learning outcomes under conditions that Western

researchers would regard as most unpromising’. Saravanamuthu (2008;

see also Saravanamuthu and Tinker 2008) notes in his reviews that inter-

national comparison of educational performance reveals that students

from Confucian-heritage cultures tend to outperform Western students.

. (2007; 2009) find Chinese students who were brought up in a

context where education tends to be rigid, knowledge-oriented, teacher-

centred, and even harmful to learning turned out to be very successful in

English-speaking environments. The contradictions have triggered interest

in Chinese learners’ deep learning process in terms of their mode of

inquiry and interpretation.

It may be envisaged that contemporary Chinese pedagogy, including

the pedagogues of many eastern Asian countries, is the result of a cultural

interaction embedding ‘modern’ Western epistemology into a ‘traditional’

Eastern framework. Such a process of cultural hybridization is usually

seen as inevitable—as well as desirable to the progress of education. How-

ever, the crucial point underlining the discourse hybridization is the disso-

lution of cultural diversity, whereby the ancient vision of Confucian

pedagogy becomes lost in the name of progress and integration, which

poses a threat to cultural plurality. How can we recover the authentic

meanings of Chinese pedagogy in its indigenous tradition? What is the

cultural mixture that creates either ‘problems’ or ‘merits’ in the Confu-

can-heritage education as we see it, or assume we see it?

To embark on an investigation of these questions, I undertake a criti-

cal discourse analysis of pedagogic texts from both the Chinese classics

and the contemporary classroom (Fairclough 2003). I assume that the

mode and the structure of discourse at a given time and in a given culture

render its deep concerns with pedagogy: what counts as ‘knowledge’;

what occurs as learning; and what kinds of pedagogic process it presumes

and fosters (Cazden 2001). The cultural uniqueness of pedagogy is

revealed in the analysis of discourse.

I select two pieces of ‘classroom’ text for analysis, one a short dialogue

between Confucius and his student and the other an excerpt of classroom

transcription from a contemporary language lesson teaching Chinese clas-

sics. I try

not

to explore the text from the point of view of the individuals

who are speaking, to avoid making a comparison of the ‘quality’ of the

classrooms. I want to place them in the historical contexts where peda-

gogy comes into play in discourses the speakers may not be aware of. The

investigation is not an empirical one, but an analytical ethnography in the

philosophical perspective of language.

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CHINESE PEDAGOGIC DISCOURSE

Interpretation towards growth and autonomy

First I present a text illustrating a dialogue between Confucius and a stu-

dent which I read and analyse as ‘ordinary’ classroom discourse rather

than as words of wisdom or ideas. In doing so, the characteristics of Con-

fucian pedagogic discourse emerge and spark an inquiry into questions

such as: What is the pedagogic vision unveiled and organized in the dia-

logue? How do patterns of interaction affect what counts as knowledge

and what occurs as learning? and At what level of interpretation does the

meaning-making process occur within the pedagogic discourse?

Tsze-kung said, ‘What do you pronounce concerning the poor man who

does not flatter, and the rich man who is not proud?’ The Master replied,

‘They will do; but they are not equal to him who, although poor, is yet

cheerful, and to him who, although rich, loves the rules of propriety’. Tsetse-

kung replied, ‘It is said in the

Odes

, “As you cut and then file, as you carve

and then polish”. The meaning is the same, I apprehend, as that which you

have just expressed’. The Master said, ‘Tsze, I can begin to talk about the

Odes

. I told you one point, and you knew its proper sequence’. (

Analects

15; translation modified)

One of the distinctive features of modern classrooms is the pedagogic

pattern that follows the Initiate–Respond–Evaluation (IRE) procedure

(Cazden 2001). The pattern gets teachers through their lessons and

allows the accomplishment of goals—the assimilation of prescribed infor-

mation and ideas which have a value of right or wrong—and defines

learners as the unknowing and the teacher as the knowing. In ways that

are different from modern pedagogic discourse dominated by IRE pat-

terns, it is the student rather than the teacher who initiates the inquiry in

Confucius’ discourse. Throughout the

Analects

, Confucius is unwilling to

take the initiative to ask students questions. It is usually the student who

should have something to say

before

the teacher can think of advising, or

not advising, him or her. Confucius offers the following expression of his

principles of teaching:

I never enlighten anyone who has not been driven into being

fen

(

who has not got into being

). When I have pointed out one corner of

a square to anyone and he does not come back with the other three, I will

not point it out to him a second time. (

Analects

7: 8)

In this brief statement, Confucius indicates a vision of autonomy, a

prerequisite for teaching with understanding and articulation. The

Chinese character

fen

describes the inner frenzy when one’s heart

gets deeply touched. This character is not a semantic representation of

a particular mood, but an image to make sense holistically of a student

moving towards understanding. With understanding so pre-occupied in

students’ hearts, they become eager to search for a language to

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articulate it. This is the moment when the teacher can help. The char-

acter

fei

(

) describes the facial expression when a person stammers to

put understandings into words.

Fen

and

fei

here together portray a lear-

ner’s status of knowing and commitment, ‘a fore-having, a fore-sight,

and a fore-conception’, so attuned in heart that it opens itself only

through body and action in a way that makes manifest who he or she

is, and where he or she is moving to.

What the student has already understood and the struggle for its lin-

guistic articulation make up the pedagogic possibility in the embodied

readiness of

fen

and

fei

. In Student Tsze-kung’s question, we sense his

current moment of engagement (‘the poor man who yet does not flatter’)

and his fore-sight (‘the poor man is yet cheerful’) that he wants to catch

with the help of the teacher’s words. As Confucius says, ‘Learn as if you

could not reach your object, and were always fearing also lest you should

lose it’ (

Analects

, 8: 17). ‘

Object

’ is a word added by

the translator. In the original text, what you want to catch is open for any

interpretation. It is a ‘fore-sight’. For Confucius, a teacher’s capacity for

teaching is not that he or she is clever and more knowledgeable than his

or her students; rather it is the interpretive capacity to detect the horizon

of a learner’s fore-sight or pre-understanding, and to offer a language to

help the learner to hear for himself or herself the articulation of what calls

in this particular pedagogic engagement. I could perhaps use Heidegger’s

(1968: 8, 15) expressions ‘to let learn’ to comment on the pedagogic

interaction between Confucius and his student:

Teaching is even more difficult than learning. We know that; but we rarely

think about it. And why is teaching more difficult than learning? Not

because the teacher must have a larger store of information, and have it

always ready. Teaching is more difficult than learning because what teach-

ing calls for is this: to let learn. The real teacher, in fact, lets nothing else

be learned than learning … The teacher is far ahead of his apprentices in

this alone, that he has still far more to learn than they—he has to learn to

let them learn. The teacher must be capable of being more teachable than

the apprentices.

My second question to the

Analects

asks what counts as learning, and

what kind of learning process the dialogue presumes or fosters. Tsze-

kung’s response to Confucius is not merely to accept what his teacher

told him, nor to know better what a

Junzi

(noble man,

子

) means, but

to engage in a further inquiry into the process of becoming a

Junzi

. Tsze-

kung quotes a stanza from the

Book of Odes

to reveal his understanding

of how to become a

Junzi

, as described in his question: ‘“As you cut and

then file, as you carve and then polish”. The meaning is the same, I

apprehend, as that which you have just expressed’. The poem is a descrip-

tion of an elegant and accomplished minister and his successive steps of

self-cultivation. His way of learning could be conceived as a model of cul-

tivation for the attainment of self-accomplishments. Nevertheless what is

significant in the poetic description is perhaps the ‘hollowness’ inside the

words,

which can only be revealed in the totality of a person’s (here

Tsze-kung’s) movement towards understanding and becoming.

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CHINESE PEDAGOGIC DISCOURSE

It was with Tsze-kung’s commitment to this poetic revelation that

Confucius was given a pedagogic opportunity for teaching the Odes.

‘With one like Tsze, I can begin to talk about the Odes. I told him one

point, and he knew its proper sequence’. Confucius notices the moment

of Tsze-kung’s awareness of the relationships between thought, language,

and poetry. The speech of Tao is by nature poetic, rather than proposi-

tional; as Heidegger (1975: 74) holds, the voice of thought must be poetic

because poetry is the saying of truth, the saying of the unconcealedness of

beings. ‘The Odes serve to stimulate the mind. They may be used for

purposes of self-contemplation’ (

Analects

17: 9). Zhang (2009: 107) com-

ments on this that

xing

, being inspired) rather than being indoctri-

nated is the key to the existential generation of meanings. Poetry plays a

primordial role in the way of ‘becoming and happening’. Therefore, Con-

fucius said to his son, ‘If you do not learn the Odes, you will not know

how to speak’ (

Analects

16: 13).

We may recognize that the process of learning is not to absorb new

ideas. To learn is to know the way of growing. ‘Growing’ means polish-

ing, carving, transforming, and becoming. The ultimate purpose for learn-

ing is to become a better polished person (

junzi

) for the enhancement of

the quality-of-life in the world. Thus, a poor man who does not flatter

‘polishes’ himself to the status of being a poor man, yet with happiness.

What Confucius offers is not a new idea, or even a new concept of

Junzi

;

rather it is a handover of a learning opportunity whereby students can

make sense of their lives insofar as a current status of

Junzi

grows towards

the next thing unarticulated in the soil out of which they are becoming.

My third aspect of inquiry is the epistemological question about peda-

gogical interaction. Pedagogic dialogue should not be seen as something

made up of various patterns of questions and answers. Pedagogic dialogue

at its deep level is an encounter of interpretations wherein ‘what is said

remains unsaid’ (Heidegger, quoted in Standish 2002: 151). In response

to what Confucius said about a

Junzi

, Tsze-kung returned with his inter-

pretation of what was unsaid by Confucius: the value of poetic language

for articulating one’s understanding of how to become a

Junzi

. Doing so

unfolds a new phase of inquiry into the possibility of teaching the

Odes

Only when a student knows how to engage into the interaction of inter-

pretations, or a revealing of what is unsaid, can she or he be taught. Con-

fucius was hopeful as a result of Tsze-kung’s reply because he was offered

a pedagogic opportunity—first laid down by himself as a signpost, and

then being established in its full course by the student—whereby both of

them can learn from each other. As Confucius remarks, ‘When I have

pointed out one corner of a square to anyone and he does not come back

with the other three, I will not point it out to him a second time’ (

), an image to hold understanding holistically grounded

in the nameless, points to a possibility of pedagogic engagement. By hold-

ing it up as an elucidation, Confucius invites learners into the opening of

enlightenment whereby learners can in turn respond with the other three

corners of a square. In Tsze-kung’s reply by quoting a stanza of poem, we

notice how the three ‘corners’ of interpretations are simultaneously

574

Z. WU

returned and established: his awareness of the gap for self-cultivation; his

understanding of how to fill the gap in terms of incessant self-polishing

(

); and his way of using poetic language to articu-

late his interpretation. With the horizons of interpretation so established,

teachers and learners engage themselves in a heart-to-heart rather than a

word-to-word dialogue so that they can mutually constitute and illumi-

nate the world of learning with four corners.

To sum up, in the Confucian perspective knowledge is not a set of

propositions about truth, but a situated intuitive insight that goes beyond

the propositional representation. Learning is a process of incessant modi-

fication of self, undertaken for the attainment of enlightenment and hap-

piness. And the role of teaching is to detect the horizon of student

readiness and make it a handover of a learning opportunity. Pedagogy as

a heart-to-heart encounter of inter-subjective interpretation is activated by

words in order to exercise the power of interpretation of the living. For

this reason language must be kept to a minimum so that understanding

and interpretation can prevail. Long arguments and rigorous definition

were considered to be unhelpful; they were seen as limiting, and under-

mining the value of discourse.

In the Chinese tradition, simplicity, poeticity, and indirectness are

conceived of as the necessities for conveying the deepest meanings—and

this cannot be done otherwise (Jullien 2000: 141). The Chinese classics

generally take the form of brief conversations, short axioms, verses, sto-

ries, etc., rather than complicated arguments. For example, the

Analects

Confucius, a book which has greatly influenced Chinese thought, consists

exclusively of short aphorisms and brief dialogues. A verse consisting of

merely four characters (for instance,

, ‘The gentleman is no ves-

sel’) might guide a person for the whole life. It is the genre, the style of

speaking, or the contour of thought, that makes the

Analects

a great work

within Chinese civilization. For thousands of years, it has served as the

source of meanings that plunges generations of Chinese people into ‘the

sea of interpretation’ (Clark 2006: 109). In a similar way,

Tao Te Jing

book which initiated the whole Taoist philosophical tradition, has only

6000 words. Feng (1952: 14) contends that Chinese philosophical con-

cepts and teachings are highly ‘suggestive and creative’, providing signifi-

cant flexibility, which in turn leaves enough room for situated meaning to

be grasped personally. In a word, the ultimate function of Confucian lan-

guage is heuristic—creating a space for situated understanding rather than

presenting a conscious thesis of its own. Language is a tool to make the

world intelligible, a signpost to show us the Way (

Tao

The language–

world relation is that between language and action, not that between lan-

guage and objects (Hansen 1992: 139). As soon as one gains access to

what is unsaid, one can forget the exterior of propositional expressions.

Cultural transformation of Chinese pedagogic discourse

My analysis of a pedagogic dialogue of Confucius is not merely for the

purpose of recovering the meaning of the past, but for shedding light on

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CHINESE PEDAGOGIC DISCOURSE

the present. What we see in the

Analects

is a pedagogic vision completely

different from what modern people normally assume to be the Confucian

heritage of pedagogy. However, Chinese pedagogic discourse, since its

encounter with the West, has undergone a fundamental transformation in

its cultural connotation and linguistic exactitude (Wang 1999, Guo and

Hu 2003, Wen 2006). What we see in today’s classroom, even when the

task is the teaching of Chinese traditions, has become a part of modernity

enterprise bringing interpretation to representation, knowing to the

enclosed relation of signifier and signified.

The transcripts that follow come from a demonstration lesson given

by one of the best middle-school teachers in China. It is a language-arts

lesson that accommodates the learning of Chinese classics. The text, writ-

ten in Song Dynasty (960–1279 CE), is about a child genius having his

talents wasted in the absence of an appropriate education. The composi-

tion of the text itself was not influenced by any Western discourse.

In the classroom excerpts the teacher encourages students to explore

the meaning of the text. I think this is a good lesson which fosters collab-

orative learning and creative discussion. Nevertheless my interest is not in

the ‘quality’ of lesson, but in the discourse, the grammatical totality by

which the whole mass of contemporary Chinese literacy texts are pro-

duced: ‘For the word to be able to say what it says, it must belong to a

grammatical totality which, in relation to the word, is primary, fundamen-

tal, and determining’ (Foucault 2002: 306). I ask what kind of pedagogic

discourse is deployed and what meanings are decoded in a lesson which is

presumably to teach Chinese classics.

。

Teacher

: Wang Anshi, known as one of the eight e

lites of the Tang and

Song literary traditions, was a politician, philosopher, and litterateur of his

time. … This essay in our textbook is written by him to tell a story which

sets out his attitudes, feelings, or particular opinion. Now let’s look into this

essay.

[

[The students read the text loudly in chorus.]

师

Teacher

: Do you have any difficulty in reading this on your own? Or does

anything sound new to you which you would like to share with the class to

initiate some discussion?

生

Student

: The problem with our group comes from the sentence,

shao shao

bin ke

[guest]

qi fu

[father], and we don’t understand why the noun

bin ke

[guest] is translated as

dang bin ke dui dai

[treat … like a guest].

Teacher

[applauding]: Very good! A good student is the one who can ‘return

three corners out of one’ [i.e. draw inferences from one instance] and accu-

mulate learned knowledge to deal with unknown knowledge, which, accord-

ing to Confucius, can be described as …?

。

Students

: [Answering in chorus] He who by reanimating the Old can gain

knowledge of the New is fit to be a teacher.

师

。

Teacher

: Great, this defines the proper path to reach the essence of knowl-

edge and by doing so we truly transform the knowledge into an ability of

our own. There are many other similar usages up for grabs in this essay.

Let’s see which group can find them in a correct and efficient way.

The dialogue is oriented to interpreting the text in terms of linguistic

knowledge and its representation. For Confucius interpretation operates

in the horizon of the lived world where something already understood

becomes unveiled in the manner of ‘

). Representation

establishes itself by a codified and normative system; instead of opening

up the world as transparent entities, representation ‘reproduces thought

in its exactitude’ (Foucault 2002: 86). Signs of concepts and their internal

coherences determine the intelligibility of the world.

Since China met the West, these signs of concepts gradually appeared

in Chinese pedagogic discourse, and eventually became a pedagogic inter-

pretive framework according to which the lived world, including Chinese

classics, is analysed, classified, ordered into consciousness, and related as

objects of the discourse framework. Thus, we see from the excerpt that

577

CHINESE PEDAGOGIC DISCOURSE

Why is it important that depreciation be charged on long-term assets held as fiduciary fund investments.

Provide complete answers to the following two questions.

For what types of activities are internal service funds used to account? Provide several examples. Is a government required to account for the activities you cite in an internal service fund, or may it account for them instead in its general fund?
What is the rationale for accounting for nonexpendable endowment funds on a full, rather than a modified, accrual basis? Why is it important that depreciation be charged on long-term assets held as fiduciary fund investments?

Requirements:

Submit your responses to the following questions in a 1-2 page document in MS Word. Label each question clearly. Please include computations in a table.
For written answers, please make sure your responses are grammatically correct and free from spelling errors.

Discuss how employment-at-will affected the employees and the company.

research a company that has been in the news due to ethical problems. Evaluate the ethical dilemma under two ethical frameworks. Analyze what part whistleblowers played in the exposure to the company. Evaluate whether the company used marketing or public relations successfully when trying to repair the damage caused by the reported lapse in ethics.

Reflect on the class discussions and the articles that you have read during the class and use the information, and other academic sources to write a 2500- 3000 word essay critiquing the company, its operations, and the ethical dilemma it caused. Must be APA formatted with references and plagiarism free.

I need this in one hour. Please dont respond unless you can do it right now. Thank you