Portable Concepts

Portable Concepts It is possible to single out several portable concepts that are discussed in the readings. First of all, one can mention the article The Grand Tour written by Evan Osnos who examines such an issue as cultural stereotypes. In this case, the very word stereotype can be described as a popular and widespread idea or a statement that has been accepted by people without any rigorous verification.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Portable Concepts specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More For instance, in the article, Evan Osnos describes the experiences of Chinese tourists; it is believed that that these people will prefer only traditional Chinese cuisine. However, in many cases, they simply go to McDonalds which often appeals to them; so, this stereotype is not confirmed. In their turn, the visitors from China were not accustomed to the idea that shop assistants cannot do several things at a time since they are accustomed to this f orm of behavior. This is one of the details that can be identified. Apart from that, Evan Osnos explores another important concept in the article; in particular, one should speak about such a notion as culture shock. This term can be described as the inability of a person to adjust to a different culture, including the behavioral norms, the standards of living, or values adopted in a different society. These experiences are familiar to many people who did not have an opportunity to travel for a long time; for example, one can mention people who are coming from China since they are not used to traveling though Western countries. This notion is useful for describing the experiences of immigrants who may not easily cope with culture shock. These readings can throw light on other portable concepts, for instance one can speak about such a term as Americanness which is discussed by Judith Hamera and Alfred Bendixen. This notion can be defined as the distinct peculiarities of American iden tity or the experiences of people who live in the United States. This notion is important for the study of American culture, its history, and development; more importantly, this reading suggests that travelling and search for novelty are critical elements of Americanness. Moreover, one can argue that the concept of Americanness is important for studying the relations between American people and the representatives of other cultures. Furthermore, one can also discuss such a notion as travel writing which is closely discussed by Anthony Bourdain in the introduction to the book The Best American Travel Writing. Overall, this term can be applied to every literary works that explores the experiences of people who are confronted with a different culture, way of life, or traditions. It is possible to say that travel writing can be a helpful tool for understanding the similarities and differences between cultures.Advertising Looking for essay on communications media? Let's see if w e can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Finally, it is possible to examine such a term a term as cultural identity that plays an important part in each of these readings. However, one should first consider the essay by Judith Hamera and Alfred Bendixen. Overall, this notion is used to denote a set of experiences, attitudes, and assumptions that are familiar to representatives of various cultures. Certainly, it is difficult to speak about the fixed cultural identity, but this notion can still be helpful for explaining the interactions between the representatives of different cultures. These are the main portable concepts that can be distinguished.

Free sample - Social Story Interventions for Students. translation missing

Social Story Interventions for Students. Social Story Interventions for StudentsSocial Story Interventions for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders A Meta-Analysis According to the American Psychiatrist Association (APA, 2000), Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a group of disorders characterized by a variety of difficulties with social interactions, communication, interests and repetitive behaviors. Included in ASD is autism, Aspersers Syndrome(AS) and pervasive developmental disorder which is not otherwise specified(PDD-MOS.)A wide range of interventions have been practiced so as to   mitigate the disorder. Among the intervention strategies is the use of social stories. These are individualized short stories written by teachers or parents of students with ASD. These stories can according to Atwood,2000 be used to aid people with such disorders in interpreting and comprehending challenging or rather confusing social questions. Social stories also give information regarding what people in a given situation are doing, feeling, thinking, sequence of events and the identification of important social cues and their meaning. Basically, the storie s deal with the ; who, what, when and why aspects of social situations (Atwood, 2000.p.90). Reynhout and Carter conducted a meta-analysis of single subject research to examine the use of social stories and the role of comprehensive set of moderator variables which include intervention and participant characteristics on intervention outcomes. In 2004, Sansosti, Powel Smith and Kincaid had carried out a comprehensive review and synthesis of the already existing research literature relating to social story effectiveness and discovered that a lot of the conducted studies were deficient of experimental control, had weak treatment effects and were confounded by a range of treatment variables. This made it hard to determine whether social stories alone were responsible for the changes seen in target behaviors.(Reynhout and Carter ,p.466)coincide with the observations made by Kincaid and company. They note that 'existing research does not demonstrate unequivocally that social story intervention is consistently effective in facilitating behavior change in children with autism. A com parison between two related studies was done. The studies were: a meta-analysis of single subject research and a web based survey. The two research studies had the following set of questions :( a) what is the overall effectiveness of social stories? (b) How are social stories constructed and used? and (c) What are the control participant and intervention variables that moderate the effectiveness of social stories? In the meta-analysis, (Crozier, 2007) Percentage of non-overlapping data (PND) was computed for the total intervention in the study for each participant. A set of inclusion criteria was used i.e. â€Å"studies using non experimental AB designs†¦treatment packages, those involving participants without a diagnosis of ASD and those with ceiling effects in baselines were not included†(Crozier, 2007). Due to this, a total of 18 studies comprising of 15 published articles and 3 dissertations that had been published between the years 2002 and 2007 were included in the meta-analysis. The web based questionnaire analyzed using descriptive statistics provided data for the survey. The final sample was made up of 42 teachers who were dealing with students with ASD. The use and effectiveness of social story was obtained and later on compared and contrasted across the two studies. The results of the meta-analysis pointed out those social stories had low to questionable overall effectiveness as per the PND score of 62% in the range 11-100% obtained for the intervention. Most teachers on contrary perceived the stories as highly effective when used to address transition difficulties faced by students with ASD. The meta-analysis indicated larger effects of the social stories on the reduction of challenging traits as opposed to the increase of social stall. According to the studies, the use of teachers as agents of social stories in special education contexts is the most common. On the other hand, the use of social stories in general education classrooms with students as their own intervention agents were associated with greater treatment effectiveness. The application of Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA)   to inform social story interventions is believed to have led to improved outcomes. Younger and higher functioning participants such as students with better communication and social skills seemed to benefit to a greater extent from the intervention compared to older students with lower levels of skill development. The analysis also made use of additional variables of interest such as format of social stories, length and intensity of the intervention, use of comprehensive checks and participant reading skills.