The United Arab Emirates has for the recent years beheld noteworthy achievements in education. This includes a remarkable increase in adult education programs that has improved literacy level among many adults. In addition, there has been outstanding development of free and cultural education program relevant to all citizens of the United Arabs Emirates. Thus, it has been an eye opener to the curriculum developers who have launched a reform program meant for primary and secondary sections that is bound to yield amazing results. Having completed such outstanding programs, emerging issues in higher education are pressing. This has led to several public administrators to conduct relevant research and implement relevant programs. These programs are meant to improve the higher education section in the country with help from NGOs and other developed nations.
The United Nations is trying to address the issue of Higher Education provision in the United Arab Emirates. Also the issue of information access and human capital are being addressed together with the provision of advanced higher education in the United Arabs Emirates. The main underlying issues being addressed are the maintenance of a high proficient higher education system that can conform to earlier decades standards. This education system should create a chance to approach emerging and challenging issues so as to create a satisfactory knowledgeable economy. To meet this issue perfectly, a simultaneous approach is necessary to identify and address relevant issues within the higher education in the country. The United Nations together with World Bank and UNESCO are focused on the underlying problems that may be problematic to a public administrator to provide first class higher education in the country. The World Bank and UNESCO are the main bodies interested in this Arab state.
The main plans and goals is to address the problems and handle them to provide a self-sustaining higher education system that meet international standards. In addition, economic development is the main approach but faced with many problems as will be discussed later. Quality of education, management inefficiency, urgent need for specialized workers, and poor infrastructure are the main problems the interested stakeholders are focused on. A long-term schedule is essential to enable one to achieve the best from such problems. This framework should also address certain issues like health care and provision of better higher education to the students in the university.
There are several challenges, for example, universities in the country are faced with abnormal demand for an advanced education system. This is a similar scenario in the developed and developing nations. This demand is abnormal because necessary funding meant to sustain the advanced education program is irrational and stagnant. The population of students postulated to graduate annually is decreasing at an alarming rate. Another problem that compromises the quality of higher education in the country is the competition from the private sector. 1
Another challenge encountered in United Arab Emirate higher education is when UNESCO and World carried out research and found out a dire need in managerial efficiency. Relevant resources meant for improving the higher education sector is being drained and hence reducing the quality of the sector. Notably, big proportions of budget money are allocated to less important non-educational faculties at the expense of higher education. In developed and developing countries there are duplicative contributions that later leads to repetitive rates. This is also evident in United Arab Emirate. Also this inefficiency can be attributed to urgent need of specialized workers. These workers are vital in allowing the universities to adapt to emerging issues in the global labor market.
A third challenge posed to higher education provision in the country is the low rate of students in federal institutions that offer higher education. This attrition can be attributed to the improper readiness of potential students for the demands needed in higher education. Secondly, students have poor targets towards higher learning. Most students are inadequately skilled to choose goals or relevant degrees that best suits the potential abilities. Most students are in first generation universities and they encounter problems in accessing relevant exposure to career choice. This is a challenge that makes most of the students to dropout. Hence it contributes to high attrition rates. 2
In the case of higher demand, advanced education programs can be resolved by the following ways. First, the best ethical approach to stakeholders to give relevant training on the best channel that education funding should follow. That is, fundraising money should be focused on educational matters. This will avoid the misappropriation of funds and bring the idea that education is vital for any nations success.
Efficiency in management is vital. So, in-service courses and relevant training on stewardship would be appropriate to the teaching staff and interested clients. Therefore, this will se to it that non-educational faculties are allocated less funds compared to important educational faculties. Thus, it will reduce duplicative contributions and repetitive rates.
Another serious problem discussed above is attrition. To resolve this challenge is to give mass education on career choice to students at the secondary level. This will prepare students well to have goals that best suits their potential capabilities and meet labor demands in the market. Enough exposure concerning career choice and goals should be provided in the whole education system. This a challenge to curriculum developers to implement a relevant education system that meets the demand of discipline offered in the universities.
Thus the help channeled from the World Bank and UNESCO will improve the higher education sector and meet all the potential challenges addressed above.
Reference
Higher Education and Human Capital are Interwoven, (2010) The National: Article. Web.
Footnotes
(Higher Education and Human Capital are Interwoven, 2010).
(Higher Education and Human Capital are Interwoven, 2010).
The English language learner (ELL) student population has continued to grow worldwide (Curran, 2009). The data provided by the National Center for Educational Statistics indicates that the ELL student population has grown by a high percentage of up to 65% by 2005 (Lonigan, 2006, p. 23). Young ELL students are faced with various challenges while trying to master the English language that is in most cases new to them (Clarke, 2009). Teachers and other students wrong judge the ELL students as having low abilities.
This paper seeks to identify the barriers, difficulties faced by English language learners, as well as their strengths in literacy learning. The paper will specifically address the barriers, challenges, and strengths of young ELL students (K-3) in learning to read. It is believed that this research paper will provide relevant data from which teachers and administrators can draw to support English language learners in building language proficiency (Clarke, 2009).
Challenges and specific interventions
All children are born ready to learn a language to communicate with other people in their lives (Richek, Jennings, & Lerner, 1996, p. 12). In the course of the first few years, many children get equipped with the necessary basics in the language (Rudell, 2001). Language learning is a difficult task that requires a lot of effort. However, learning one language is a normal process that occurs naturally. The trouble begins when the children are required to learn a second language such as English. Available literature indicates that several barriers and challenges affect young ELL students, especially when learning to read. Below are the challenges that are seen to affect young ELL students in developing reading skills. The analysis includes how the challenges can be addressed using the strengths of the young ELL learners.
According to Dr. Clarke who runs an early childhood consultancy, the lack of sense of belonging within the school community is a great barrier to English learners in their early years (2009). These children lack a place for themselves in their interaction with others (Clarke, 2009). The worst cases are seen when these children are rejected by others as this denies them opportunities of listening and practicing to speak English. Thus their efforts to learn and read English are not complimented. This is especially seen if the affected pupil is from a different culture (Clarke, 2009). In the article supporting children learning English as a second language in the Early Years , DR Clarke stresses the need for cultural understanding to assist the ELL pupils to adjust smoothly and interact with others for them to be successful English learners (2009).
The second barrier to young ELL students is the minimal application or lack of contextualized language learning (Rudell, 2001). For effective comprehension, the children need to learn with a lot of visual materials. This is important for them to tie known concepts to the new vocabularies learned in class (Curran, 2009, p. 7). Classroom settings often provide a de-contextualized environment and this often complicates learning for young ELL students who are from another language background other than English (Lonigan, 2006).
The third challenge or barrier to young English language learners is an extended silent period. The silent period can be defined as any prolonged period of time when learners of English as an additional or second language refuse to try and speak English (Rudell, 2001, p. 34). In this sense prolonged refers to a period of one month or more after the exposure to English (Clarke, 2009). This barrier depends on the specific behavior and attitude of a given child. In the worst scenario, the child also makes a habit of avoiding the use of non-verbal language. Most of the affected children are usually fluent users of their first language and continue to use it at home (Rudell, 2001, p. 34). However, if the child is suspected of going through language delay then specialized interventions should be carried out. According to the Challenges and initiatives in early childhood Education Report on Arab Resource collective workshop , the following strategies can be used to support children experiencing the silent period (Clarke, 2009, p. 12). First, the early childhood professionals need to be at the forefront in modeling the practice of talking and listening; show to other learners that the silent pupil can communicate; make efforts to include the learner in a range of group activities; accept and praise the learners minimal contributions; focus the conversation on other children in the group if the learner seems reluctant to be included in the interaction; and finally make use simple language which is supported by visual materials (Rudell, 2001).
The fourth challenge often occurs when young ELL students are offered difficult reading tasks that are not relevant for their stage of learning. Such tasks will turn will reduce their confidence in themselves and affect their concentration. Teachers of young ELL learners should be aware of their students reading abilities and thus should be able to assign tasks that are within their comprehension. The children should be encouraged to engage in a range of activities with books and reading exercises that are relevant for them. These children will enjoy simple stories, repeat repetitive phrases in books, anticipate the ending of a story or the stages of a story, join in with shared reading, and recognize letters, logos, and signs among others (Lonigan, 2006, p. s15).
The fifth challenge often lies in the belief that English language learners dont understand what is going on or dont want to participate in the learning activities (Curran, 2009, p. 20). The ELL teachers should be able to understand the reasons that are making the students behave in this manner. In most cases, students behave this way when the learning activities lack comprehensible input. Comprehensible input can be achieved by making good use of the following: appropriate facial expression, for instance giving the learners a node to proceed on during a reading task; by use of gestures and body movements , this way the teacher can help the learner to have a better understanding of words and concepts; the best approach to aid in comprehension is the use of visual aids (Rudell, 2001, p. 7). For instance, for younger children, names of objects should be represented with drawings or pictures of the objects to assist them to connect (Clarke, 2009).
The sixth challenge is often presented by the teachers who try to treat ELL students as special cases that require special attention. This will draw the attention of other students to the ELL in a way that will affect his/her reading skills. This often leads to such students pretending not to understand what they are being taught. However, they are out playing with other students they are seen to speak just fine (Richek, Jennings, & Lerner, 1996). Thus teachers should realize that it is important that English language learners have the opportunity to interact and negotiate for meaning (Richek, Jennings, & Lerner, 1996, p. 40). The teacher should not make the student think that he/she has a real big problem in a way that kills the students morale.
The seventh challenge or hurdle is presented by cultural differences. Cultural differences may lead to miscommunication by different interpretations. Children raised in families with strong cultural backgrounds are more likely to be affected. Different cultures have different interpretations for things such as responding to eye contact, relationship with figures in authority and expectations about classroom participation (Clarke, 2009, p. 18). The instructors of young ELL learners should be able to understand this and take appropriate steps to help the students. Common visual language is effective in enabling the students to transfer their patterns of thinking from their first languages to English (Richek, Jennings, & Lerner, 1996, p. 9). Alternatively, the teacher can use reading materials that have been adjusted to fit the students culture. This has been shown to increase the ELL performance by up to 20 percent (Clarke, 2009).
Implementation of intervention strategies
The intervention strategies aim to show how the teachers can build around the students strengths to assist them to develop proper reading skills. Thus the teachers should be able to draw on the students background experiences and encourage connections between academic concepts and students own lives (Curran, 2009,p. 23). This will go a long way in assisting the students to understand why they need to communicate in the English language. This can be achieved by a variety of interventions such as formulation of proper strategies that will encourage students to learn how to read in their first languages and then transfer the concepts to English learning; the teacher should be able to establish a link with the learners culture and family by using culturally congruent teaching methods (Clarke, 2009, p. 13). The young ELL learner should be made to be proud of their culture by being given opportunities to teach other students about his/her culture or language. There should be extensive use of multicultural literature to develop the students interest in reading; the teacher should use engaging instructions such as cooperative groupings to engage learners (Clarke, 2009, p. 19). The ELL pupils should be able to connect words meaning by using nonverbal clues and non-linguistic representation of ideas, including multimedia, manipulative, simulations and modeling (Curran, 2009, p. 23).
Conclusion
This research paper sought to identify the barriers, difficulties faced by English language learners, as well as their strengths in literacy learning. It has been established that ELL students are faced with multiple challenges and barriers most of which are due to their cultural differences. The cultural difference leads to different perceptions that are interpreted differently by the other students and teachers and thus affecting the ELL learner. The paper has shown how teachers can make use of students strengths to create the appropriate environment for better reading development (Curran, 2009). If the strategies are properly implemented then this will go a long way in alleviating learning difficulties for young ELLs.
Reference list
Clarke, P. (2009). Supporting Children Learning English as a Second Language in The Early Years (birth to six years). New York: Victorian Curriculum and assessment authority.
Curran, M. (2009). Fostering English Language Learning in Early Childhood Settings: THe successful Transisition. New Jersey: The state Universtiy of New Jersey.
Lonigan, C. (2006). Development, assessment, and promotion of preliteracy skills. Early Education and Development. Web.
Richek, C., Jennings, J., & Lerner, J. (1996). Reading problems: Assessment and Teaching Strategies.. Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon.
Rudell, M. (2001). Assessment of students Progress in subject Area reading and Writing: Teaching Content reading and Writing. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Special education refers to the education offered to individuals with exceptional needs with the aim of meeting their personal requirements. It entails the use of specially designed and systematically supervised system of teaching.
It also involves the use of resources, modified devices as well as accessible teaching environment to enable the learners with unique needs to realize self-reliance and achievement at school and in their society. For this reason, special education is meant to offer extra support, programs and a distinctive educational setting to meet the needs of the special students.
More often than not, the support of the special programs is offered by both the government and non-governmental organizations.
This essay focuses on special education, and critically analyzes the various cases of special students, the appropriate instruction strategies and the challenges facing special education today. The paper seeks to identify the best practices of handling students with special needs (Jorgensen, 1998).
The History of Special Education
The concern of special education dates back from World War II with the rise of parent-organized groups which advocated for it. Among the pioneer unions advocating for education for the disadvantaged was the American Association on Mental Deficiency. This organization convened its first conference in 1947. Several other parental unions had cropped up by 1950.
These organizations were mostly supported by civil rights organizations such as Muscular Dystrophy Association, The Panel on Mental Retardation by John F. Kennedy and the United Cerebral Palsy Association. At the beginning of 1960, several schools offering special education had been established both at the local and state levels.
The current history of special education in USA can be attributed to the intensive public awareness at that time. It started with the Congressional endorsement of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act in 1975.
This act was meant to support local as well as the states to shield the rights of all the children with disabilities together with their relatives (Jerry, 2010). The adoption of this law in 1977, turned out to be the legal basis for financial support for the special education.
The law necessitated that all public schools should offer relevant public education to children with disabilities, such as mental disorders, emotional and behavioral problems, handicaps, speech and visual disorders, as well as other learning problems at no cost in 1983; the decree was expanded to encompass public awareness.
Shortly after, early intervention programs for children at the preschool level were also included. In 1990, the support and eligibility services were developed and the act was named as The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which has been expounded and developed to date.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act stipulates the different kinds of learners who qualify to be in the institutions offering special education (Jerry, 2010).
According to this law, the most critical special needs are autism, physical disabilities, developmental retardation emotional disorders, hearing impairments, mental disorders, speech impairments, visual impairments among others.
Identifying Students with Unique Needs
More often than not, children with the most obvious idiosyncrasies are detected to be having special needs by their doctors. Some of these obvious disorders include visual or hearing impairments, genetic disorders, brain damage, developmental retardation, among others (Pardini, 2002).
However, for the students whose special cases are not easily noticed as in individuals with learning impediments, there are two main ways for detecting such needs. These methods include the response to intervention model and the discrepancy model.
The discrepancy model relies on the instructor to detect the learners retarded academic performance. Conversely, the response to intervention model calls for earlier intercession of the learners poor academic performance.
The Discrepancy Model
With regards to the discrepancy model, in case a student has a normal intellect and his or her academic performance is below the teachers anticipation, the instructor offers specialized educational assistance within the area presenting difficulties.
However, the discrepancy model has encountered severe criticism among scholars. The critics argue that detecting students with learning problems using the discrepancy approach does not determine the degree of success in the treatment (Pardini, 2002).
It is also argued that the model does not consider the difference between the slow learners with a low intelligent quotient from low academic achievers with a normal intelligence quotient (Sharon, 2010).
The Intervention Model
This model entails detecting children who portray learning problems within their early years at school and offering specialized support which include remedial lessons. The manner in which the children respond then establishes if they have learning disabilities.
Children found to have learning problems may then receive extra help. As a matter of fact, offering remedial lessons during the first years at school can considerably reduce the number of children who go through the special program of education.
Establishing Individual Needs
A program for special education ought to be modified in such a way that it looks into the personal needs of all students. The instructors should offer a variety of services, where the special students obtain varying levels of services depending on their personal requirements.
These programs should be tailored in such a way that they are able to attend to the distinctive variety of a students needs. While dealing with a students individual need, it is appropriate to first determine his/her personal strengths and weaknesses. The environment resources and the goals of a students needs are then established.
Adjustment to the normal program may involve alterations within the curriculum, provision of extra equipments, and the supply of specialized physical adjustments that facilitate maximum student participation within the school setting. For instance, in case the evaluation indicates that a student cannot see, the school should consider providing the brail equipment to facilitate completion of schoolwork.
Moreover, in case the educator feels that the normal school activities abstract the other learners then they should consider moving the special learners into a resource room (Jorgensen, 1998).
Instructional Strategies
A wide range of instructional methodologies are employed while dealing with individual special students. These instructional practices can be categorized into two classes; modification and accommodation. Accommodation involves making appropriate adjustments to teaching practices so that the special learners are exposed to similar content with other learners, but in a way that is easily available to the special learner.
For instance, a school may accommodate a child with visual impairment by offering a large-print text. On the other hand, modification may involve altering the content with the aim of simplifying it. Modification also entails adjusting the complexity of the content and the method of assessing the learner.
For instance, an educator may adjust a comprehension task for a student with reading problems by giving a brief and simpler book. Other examples of modification may include omitting some subjects, provision of extra learning aids and provision of extra learning time.
Methods of Provision
Different schools employ different methodologies to avail unique educational assistance to the students with disabilities. These approaches can be categorized into three main groups, depending on the degree of the students needs as discussed below.
The Inclusion Approach
This is where learners with special academic needs spend most of their day time together with the other learners who have no exceptional needs. Since such integration can necessitate considerable adjustment of the broad curriculum, several schools employ it while dealing with students who portray mild special requirements.
Specific assistance is either offered within or outside the usual classroom lessons, depending on the kind of assistance needed.
More often than not, the learners leave the usual classrooms and go to their resource rooms when they need to attend to more demanding activities that may call for specific tools or when they may cause some form of disruption to the other learners as in when giving instructions on physical or speech therapies. This may also happen when the students require privacy, as in counseling sessions (Libby, 1990).
Mainstreaming
This approach involves the system of teaching learners who require specialized attention together with those who do not require the specialized attention within a given time span during the day, depending on their skills, after which they are separated from the others in the other part of the day (Libby, 1990).
Segregation
This is where students with special needs are exclusively put in different classrooms from the non-disabled learners. In this strategy, students who require special attention are isolated from the rest other non-disabled students.
Nevertheless, the isolated students may attend to schools offering ordinary programs, but spend all their instructional time in different classes. In such cases, students with special needs are given opportunities to socially integrate with other students when they are outside their classrooms, for instance while taking meals (Libby, 1990).
Specific Technology Associated with Special Education
Since special education is meant to cater for students who have special educational needs that result from learning difficulties, physical disabilities or behavioral problems, special schools should be specially designed, adequately staffed and properly financed for effective learning. The learning should focus on individual learners and attend to their explicit needs.
Moreover, the teacher-student ratio should be kept as low as possible, depending on the particular needs of each student. These schools should also incorporate special equipments as well as facilities for effective growth of children with special needs. Such amenities may include modified swimming pools, sensory rooms, and adapted play grounds which are essential for enhancing therapies in particular conditions (Sharon, 2010).
Challenges Experienced In Special Education
Special education has had its own share of challenges. For instance, it has been argued that, integrating the special students with those who have no special needs may slow down the overall academic performance in these schools.
On the other hand, some special education programs have been associated with a weak curriculum (Frank, 2004). In addition, some cultures still deny the disabled students access to education. In other cases, the special education programs lack enough finances to support the diverse requirements of the learners with special needs.
Sometimes, the special education programs have overlooked the most fundamental cognitive problems in the students with special needs. As a matter of fact, the main causes of most learning difficulties are not the major disabilities such as visual and hearing defects but rather, a large number of students going through the special education programs have fragile cognitive ability (Frank, 2004).
For this reason, it is of great importance that the educators of these students are able to timely spot and develop these cognitive skills in order to effectively deal with learning difficulties.
In conclusion, education should be accessible to all students regardless of their abilities. For this reason all parents who have children with any special need should ensure that they provide them with relevant education.
The special students should benefit from both modifications and accommodations strategies of instruction in order to access academic content, to access the learning environment and gain emotional realization.
Currently, majority of the children with special needs are increasingly attending ordinary schools with regular programs. However, some cases such as mental retardation cannot be effectively handled within the regular classroom environment and thus calls for a demanding specialized method of instruction as well as resources to offer maximum support.
Thus, such students should go through segregated programs which offer specialized education such as specialized methods of teaching, use of special technology, and a unique learning environment. However, in future, the special education programs should not put too much emphasis on the students academic performance but rather to other individual strengths such as sports.
The programs should also encompass the latest technologies in order to assist the students with special needs to achieve their objectives.
Reference List
Frank, B (2004). Making Inclusion Work. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall.
Jerry, W. (2010) What the law requires for disabled students: The Oakland Press.
Jorgensen, C. (1998). Restructuring high school for all students: Taking inclusion to the next level. Baltimore: Paul H. Brooks Publishing co.
Libby, G. (1990). Time and learning in the special education classroom. Albany, N.Y. State University of New York Press. p. 122.
Pardini, P. (2002). The History of Special Education. Rethinking Schools. Web.
A positive relationship between studying abroad and increasing more knowledge
With the development of different means of transport and communicative tools, there are many abilities for students to go abroad and study. Moreover, with the fall of the Curtain, more and more countries become available. Globalization touches all spheres of our life, and it is not a problem to get an education abroad. Students all over the world choose different countries to study and guarantee their character growth (Canada n.d.). It is connected first of all with the natural curiosity of youth and their desire to discover this world.
This desire is the first in the list. Moreover, young peoples desire to become independent and separated from their parents also influence their choose greatly. However, rather surprisingly there is one more reason for students to choose studying in a foreign country. It is better to the level of knowledge they show while studying abroad. This statement seems to be rather contradictory as new conditions, unknown culture, and language should depress students. Fortunately, things turned out to be not so pessimistic.
First of all, increasing the level of knowledge among students studying abroad is connected with the recognition of their independence as it is the first time they are away from home (Considering the Reasons to Study Abroad n.d.). It is their conscious choice. That is why their attitude to the process changes. Having recognized responsibility introduced by their choice, they start making great efforts in order to prove their ability to make decisions and not to disappoint their parents.
Under such conditions, their responsible attitude influences their level of knowledge. Realization of the necessity of attending classes and lectures introduces the inner motivation for study, making them learn some information not because it is demanded but because of their inner need for knowledge.
The appearance of the above mentioned intrinsic motivation is the best condition for increasing the level of study among students. There is a great number of different methods which main aim is to develop it among students as it determines their further success in study. Under such conditions in the foreign state, this kind of motivation develops more intensively and leads to higher graduation rates (Redden 2010).
One more the fact that influences positively their level of study is the conditions they live under and the realization that they should count only on their forces. Being in an absolutely different country, students recognize very fast the fact that this world is rather cruel and they should do everything by themselves.
Moreover, the atmosphere of some well-known institute also influences them greatly, increasing the level of knowledge.
A positive relationship between studying abroad and increasing career opportunities
The fact which absolutely should not be doubted is that students who live and study abroad show a better level of knowledge of the language of the country they live in than students who study the same language but at home. This fact is obvious. Linguists all over the world have outlined and stressed the great role which plays the environment of students in teaching language.
Its positive effect cannot be overestimated. Being separated from native land and inserted in an unknown linguistic environment, a person does not have another choice, and he starts studying language, no matter how difficult it is. Moreover, he studies it not from a teacher but directly from language speakers. A student percepts pure and live language, which is spoken in a country at the moment.
Another thing is practice. Living in a foreign country, a student should practice language regularly, day by day, surrounded by it (Why study abroad? n.d.) This fact, of course, has a positive influence on developing language skills among students.
There are special courses for students who study a foreign language. They are usually long-termed, and sometimes they include a visit to the country which language a student is studying, for him to live it its environment and master his language skills. These courses usually are expensive as they include transportation. Students studying abroad obtain this opportunity for free.
Important things are that they also study the culture of the country which language they study. Students will be able to get it firsthand (Reasons to study abroad n.d.a). Language and culture are inseparable, that is why with an understanding the first notion comes an understanding of the second one.
Moreover, every language has some peculiarities which are connected with the cultural aspects of a country. It is usually very difficult for students to understand these phenomena as they do not understand their origins. Being deeply implemented in the culture of a country, students studying abroad find logical explanations for these language phenomena, and it becomes easier for them to understand it.
However, students who obtain knowledge of the language in this way usually suffer from a certain lack of grammar. It is explained by the fact that they study the language while communicating, without being explained some grammatical basis of sentences they use. In these terms, students studying language in classes show better knowledge, but their vocabulary, communicative skills, and understanding of peculiarities of language will be worse than the vocabulary of students who study abroad.
A positive relationship between studying abroad and improving language skills
The modern world is characterized by a great level of rivalry. That is why sometimes it is very difficult for graduates to find a good job and make a good career. First of all, it is determined by their unreadiness to face challenges of this world. Studying at home and used to consume everything which is prepared for them, they feel at a loss in the world of rivalry.
They do not have the needed level of independence and the ability to struggle for their needs. Under such conditions, students studying abroad have more chances to find a good job and make a good carrier and improve their professional potential (Reasons to study abroad n.d.). It is conditioned by some facts. First of all, it is their increased level of self-confidence which plays the main role in the process of job search. This self-confidence is a result of students being abroad during all processes of their study.
Thrown upon their own sources, students have to face problems every day and find some ways to solve them only by their own forces. Having managed to overcome all difficulties which appeared on their way, students obtain a great level of self-respect and self-confidence, which has a great influence on their ability to find a job. Being a very good specialist, a student is very often not able to make a good impression on the employer because of a lack of this feeling, while a positive impression is very important (Bohrer 2013).
One more important thing mentioned above is the great level of independence and realization of their life purpose. Having made a very important choice once in their life, students studying abroad have also recognized their priorities and know more precisely what they need and how to achieve it, that is why their job search is more concentrated. They look through fewer vacancies, and as a result, they can devote more attention to one, which is the most interesting for them.
Finally, studying abroad and having no friends, students very often have to find new acquaintances and people to communicate. Very often these people become very useful in the process of looking for a job, giving some pieces of advice or even proposing some vacancies. Moreover, studying abroad promotes establishing relations which can be useful. (Open Doors 2013: International Students in the United States and Study Abroad by American Students are at All-Time High n.d.)
A better level of knowledge, which was mentioned above, helps these students. Employers also know this fact. That is why they devote more attention to candidates from foreign countries who have international experience (Bohrer n.d.).
Conclusion
Having outlined the main aspects of studying abroad, it is possible to come to certain conclusions. First of all, it should be said that it has great benefits if to compare it with studying in the native country. The first and the most important benefit is the undoubtedly a higher level of knowledge among students studying abroad. It is influenced by numerous aspects. First of all, it is predetermined by an increased level of independence, as a student realizes his needs, and it leads to a more responsible attitude to study.
However, the most important is the appearance of intrinsic motivation, which influences students successes greatly in the study as he accomplishes his tasks because of his inner need. Moreover, being in a foreign country, a student has the only chance to become successful and realize his potential. It is to study hard for him not to return home. It is a very good motivation for a student to obtain his knowledge. It is also important that studying abroad can just be fun (Reasons to study abroad n.d.a).
Another fact which speaks for study abroad is a positive influence it has on mastering the language skills of students who study in foreign countries. It is determined by the influence which language environment has on a student. Its positive influence is proved by different investigations in this sphere by linguists; that is why it is obvious that students have a deeper knowledge of the language.
Constant practice and communication with language speakers develop language communicative skills and lead to further improve knowledge of the language. Students who study abroad may have a lack of grammar. However, their communicative skills and understanding of culture are much better.
The last important benefit is better opportunities for students studying abroad to find a job. Their study can be taken as a process of preparation for their further independent life, and that is why they become graduates who are more competitive and prepared for job search. Their better level of knowledge and language skills greatly influence their abilities to find a job.
Moreover, their self-respect and self-confidence are the results of living under constant stress. Forced to make decisions and find solutions to their problems, students develop their skills and mind, becoming prepared for adult life. Moreover, they are not afraid of refusal, as they are prepared for it.
With this in mind, studying abroad can be recommended as a good way to develop independence and self-confidence among students and increase their global knowledge (Cook 2011). There are a lot of advantages to this way of study. Taking this fact into account, it is possible to recommend it to all students who are still hesitating whether to do it or not.
Reference List
Bohrer, I. 10 Reasons Why You Should Study Abroad in College Benefits & Challenges. Web.
In the 2021 article The cognitive challenges of effective teaching, Chew and Cerbin outline the nine major cognitive challenges of effective teaching and provide potential recommendations that can be implemented to address each. From the study, it is evident that teachers play a crucial role in facilitating better education and need to identify better strategies to help students learn and impact their teaching capabilities.
Cognitive Challenges of Effective Educating
Chew and Cerbin state students and their mental mindset as the first setback under which they believe a particular course is irrelevant, thus developing a negative attitude. As a remedy, educators need to explain the importance of the class to the learners. Metacognition and self-regulation are other challenges in which students judge their level of understanding, leading to the regulation of their learning habits. Teachers need to ask questions and provide assignments to help adjust their schooling. Student fear and mistrust are also identified in which they develop negative emotions and reactions toward the course making education difficult. Educators need to provide reassurance and improve trust with the learners.
The lack of sufficient prior knowledge is also a challenge identified as the level of understanding is different. Online questions and regular tasks were highly recommended to promote teaching. It was also identified that learners hold mistaken beliefs that may impact their ability to grasp the truth. The potential remedy includes providing diagnostic tests and identifying the nature of the learners misjudgment. Ineffective education strategies lead to poor results among schoolers, and the recommended remedy is using a constructive approach. Other issues identified by Chew and Cerbin are the transfer of learning, constraints of selective attention, and mental effort, which affect teaching. The main suggestion for preventing these setbacks was the teachers adoption of better education approaches.
Personal Reaction
The article is helpful in the education field as it highlights the possible setbacks affecting teaching and learning and provides possible solutions for each issue likely to be faced. It is good as it further provides educators with the necessary knowledge to use while eradicating the potential challenges likely to be faced in teaching and learning. The framework provided is crucial and can be used by future and current teachers to promote effective education.
Transfer of training is not a new concept but has been there as long as human beings have worked. It can be defined as the ability of an individual or trainees to apply the acquired skills, knowledge as well as behavior in different situations. It could also be termed as the degree to which trainees put into practice (in jobs) the attitudes, behaviors, skills and knowledge they acquired through training.
This is a very crucial aspect that should be enhanced for an organization to prosper through making good use of the potential possessed by employees for the purpose of achieving success and profitability (Broad, 2005). This piece of work looks at the concept of transfer of training with much emphasis being given to the factors that play a role in the success of the process and the challenges involved.
Transfer of Training
The process of transfer of training is complex but essential and should therefore be handled with a lot of concern since it determines the performance of employees in an organization to a very great extent. There are various factors that determine the degree of success of the process of transfer of training, some of them being; training design, the characteristics of individual trainee as well as environmental and situation in which training and transfer takes place.
Training design and trainee characteristics usually have a direct impact while the context of training and transfer usually affect the process in a rather indirect manner. An effective training design facilitates transfer of training and vice versa. The training design can be made effective by making sure that the training programs are in line with an organizations goals and objectives.
The trainees learning outcomes should also be clearly stipulated in accordance to workplace expectations. Characteristic of individual participants could be enhanced through effective training, selection as well as induction into an organization which enhance adaptability. The workplace environment should always foster transfer of training. The training environment should be in line with the workplace environment to avoid conflict that may hinder smooth transfer of training (Koster, 2007).
Transfer of Training: Challenges
The process of transfer of training is not usually smooth but rather faced with some challenges, which should be handled to make it a success. Some of the challenges associated with transfer of training include; negative attitudes of the trainees where they are not ready/ confident to easily apply what they have learnt, conflicting working environments where the work place policies are quite different from what was taught during training and poor policies that do not foster smooth transfer of training.
Some of the ways through which the challenges can be eliminated include stipulating clear procedures, roles and responsibilities during training, provision of aids on the job, enhancing communication, engaging the new employees in the organizations activities to motivate them to apply their skills and provision of incentives to encourage hard work and better performance (Holton and Baldwin, 2003).
Conclusion
It is evident that the process of transfer of training is very crucial and its success determines an individuals progress and hence that of the organization at large. It is therefore advisable that every effort is taken so as to ensure that trainees are able to put what they have acquired through training programs into practice in an effective manner as this have a stake in determining the performance of the trainees in the organization even in future.
Reference List
Broad, L.M. (2005). Beyond Transfer Of Training: Engaging Systems To Improve Performance. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Holton, F.E. and Baldwin T.T. (2003). Improving Learning Transfer in Organizations. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Koster, M. (2007). The Transfer of Training into the Work Environment a Socio-cultural Approach. Marienstrasse: GRIN Verlag
Businesses often face challenges all over the globe as they undertake their operations due to the differences in legal and political systems of different countries. Despite the sharp differences that exist in these countries, they can be used by investors or business people to the advantage of their operations. This paper is going to discuss ways through which the differences in the legal and political systems create misunderstanding and, at the same time, the manner with which it offers business opportunities in the international market. The paper will also explore ways through which businesses can overcome these challenges and use them to their advantage.
The legal and regulatory environment is a critical factor for any entity that wants to engage in business at any place in the world. For instance, the United States has a set of regulations and policies that govern how businesses conduct themselves within their boundaries. Due to the fact that there are no global regulations that manage businesses like rules that govern contracts and protection of patents, there are differences that exist as a result of the variation of laws in countries. Business corporations that conduct their businesses all over the globe often face inconsistencies in regulation in different countries. In order to counter this challenge, businesses operating within the US boundaries must abide by laws of the country and those of other nations that they intend to expand their business to (Nye, 2002).
The history of US companies reveals a lot of obstacles met in trying to comply with the laws of foreign countries. A good example is Coca Cola which met resistance from Italian legislation when it opposed the idea of printing ingredients on the cap instead of the bottle. Italian lawmakers argued that the cap is usually thrown away, making it less useful to the consumer to understand the ingredients. The other example was 3M Company, when it applied for partnership with the Japanese company Sumitomo. The company spent close to three years trying to meet the requirements of the Japanese legal system, and, when they were through, other competitors had exhausted the market. Due to the delays by the governments legal structures, competition from foreigners was stifled by the Japanese regulators.
In the United States, there is an act popularly known as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which does not give room for the US companies to give bribes and any form of favors so as to get business opportunities. Though the practice is illegal in the United States, some Nations do not have a problem with bribing and giving favors. In this case, business people from the US are disadvantaged by this rule if the market demands from other nations require that they give favors. In essence, this law prohibits non-American investors that they should not expect bribes from the Americans.
In my close evaluation of the legal systems of different countries discussed above, there seems to be a misunderstanding of the legal procedures when international organizations invest in a new country. From the discussion above, acquisitions of legal instruments to operate the business and protection of patents may vary from one country to another and should not be misunderstood. Instead, business organizations should evaluate the market and exploit tremendous business opportunities that go along with the legal system of that place. Entrepreneurs should not misunderstand the legal differences for business barriers, but exploit the potential of the market.
Political systems greatly determine market dynamics. Political systems of countries vary from one nation to another, thereby determining the manner in which business is conducted. A country like North Korea is led by a dictator, and the countrys fate is determined by one individual. In a country that is characterized by a totalitarian regime, only one party clings to leadership and denies other interested parties the opportunity to lead; China is a good example. There are other countries that determine their leadership using religions, Iran being at the forefront with this type of leadership. Monarchy, which is another political style of leadership, is used by countries like Saudi Arabia, where leadership succession is hereditary. The other styles of the political system are parliamentary and Republics, where the population participates in electing their leaders. In a situation where there is no leadership, there is anarchy. In this situation, the state is failed.
In the international market, markets are determined by a government political system. In most cases, the economic style is determined by the nature of the political system. In a government that is democratically determined by the electorate, the market is driven by capitalistic ideologies, and the business people determine all the forces of the market. In states that determine the market, economic activities are determined by a central administration with specific attention to the economic policy of the state. According to Nye (2002), in a dictatorial political system, the leaders control the market, distribution, and pricing. In mixed markets, the state controls some sections of the market while the other section of the market controls itself. Therefore, the political systems of a country greatly determine the market opportunities in that state.
From the argument above, it is evident that a political system can create a misunderstanding in the international market. Investors would perceive a given market segment from the leadership style that is practiced. Despite the fact that there might be big market potential, organizations would shy away, giving room for local investors to continue thriving. However, other sectors of the economy might not be exploited without external investors. It is real that political orientations create misunderstandings of the international market.
One of the approaches that organizations can use to deal with laws and regulations of other countries is by contracting lawyers of respective local countries who can offer them advice on the local laws. In addition, international organizations can opt to work closely with businessmen and women of local countries who have expertise in their legal systems. Working closely with the local business, people also enable international organizations to be in harmony with the political system of a local country. In order to auger well with the political systems, organizations can design products that do not attract criticism from religious or political points of view. They should research the market extensively so as to provide goods and services that are acceptable.
Reference
Nye, J. S. (2002). The Paradox of American Power: Why the Worlds Only Superpower Cant Go It Alone. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
The life of a college student is often viewed as an ongoing festival with a lot of entertainment, but the reality is usually not so vivid and rather trivial. Popular movies created the attractive image of the college life for young people, but it is important to pay attention to the fact that the main purpose of entering the college for the majority of students is the high-quality education to continue their study or start a career. As a result, a college life should be discussed as a life of an adult person, and it is full of both joy and challenges.
Thus, college students face various pressures. These pressures are the necessity to work full-time, exhausting preparations for examinations, and the necessity to balance the study and life.
A full-time job is a good chance for a student to become financially independent, but it also can act as a significant stressor. College students often become unprepared to spending all their weekdays working and all their weekends studying the material for college classes.
In addition to the study stress, working students experience pressures associated with the necessity to pay for their books or cover their living expenses. Pressures at work in addition to challenges in college create a highly stressful atmosphere for a student. From this point, the primary result of this challenge typical for many students is the necessity to learn the study materials at night in order to succeed in college.
Study in college is associated with a lot of learning and preparations for examinations, and it often includes the late night cramming to meet certain deadlines.
The necessity of the non-stop learning and the life full of deadlines become a real stress for a college student who tries to meet all limits and address all expectations while focusing on the late night cramming. As a result, a student becomes exhausted, his or her attention decreases, and the level of stress grows. In this case, the only way to cope with the stress is the focus on the study and life balance.
In order to study at the highest academic level, a student experiences the additional pressure while struggling to maintain the balance in his or her life and to have the adequate amount of rest. The academic excellence is a goal for many college students. However, while trying to study to their limit and receive only the highest grades, students often forget about the necessity of the effective rest for them.
Weak skills in time management and the inability to organize their hours for the study and rest lead students to the prostration and insomnia as a result of the stress. Therefore, in order to demonstrate the high results in the academic performance, it is necessary to learn how to cope with pressures that are faced by students almost every day of their college life.
From this perspective, it is important to state that students usually experience many challenges and pressures, and they need to persevere while coping with different adversities and stresses. The reason is that there are many challenges that can be faced by a typical student daily, and all these challenges need to be overcome successfully in order to achieve the goal.
Thus, college students have to find numerous ways in order to cope with such pressures as the everyday work combined with the study, the scrupulous preparation for examinations all nights long, and the desire for a balanced life where study is effectively combined with the rest activities in order to be full of energy to achieve new heights. However, in spite of many pressures, college students often remain to be active, joyful, persistent, and hard-working.
Chinas rapid development over the past half-century continues to impress scholars and economists from around the world. While being the fastest-growing major economy in the globe, this country attracts many investors and creates multiple opportunities for the global corporations. Breslin in his book points out that Chinas market demonstrates an apparent tendency for the steady growth expanding by 7% annually (44). However, alongside the excellent opportunities there are challenges that the country is forced to overcome to maintain a selected course aimed at the speedy economic advancement. In their attempts to build a global giant, the governmental machineries exert every effort to respond to the occurring challenges. Changes that currently take place within the country create a favorable environment for international businesses to expand their capacities.
Opportunities within Chinas Market
Among the opportunities that investors worldwide consider the most appealing low labor costs take the leading position. Scholars estimated that moving business assets to China could reduce operating expenses for the international companies by 30% to 80% (Breslin 72). However, the cheap workforce is not the only advantage corporations receive when entering the Chinese market. The fact that above 30% of the country residents are aged above 50 leads to the assumption that the index of labor capable age is increasing (Breslin 153). This occurrence forms favorable conditions for creating additional workspaces and keeping wages at an acceptable level for both inland and foreign organizations. In its turn, it ensures that human resources continue to arrive. To add more, Asian economic region is at the forefront of the technological revolution, which creates extra opportunities for companies to compete with each other successfully.
Challenges to Overcome
While the Chinese market provides multiple opportunities for doing business, there are challenges that companies cannot neglect when entering a given sector. Among them, one can highlight the product quality assurance. The cheap workforce often leads to the occurrence of a reverse effect, which is the low quality of produce. Unless organizations designate quality control managers to monitor the process of production, there is a considerable risk to fall below the established standards (Breslin 160).
Another challenge is the anti-monopoly legislation provided against foreign organizations. China has a planned economy, and government conducts a strict local control over the financial system (Breslin 32). Fully equipped state-owned enterprises arrive as the strong market players and are in direct competition with external corporations. Also, the high level of pollution tracked across the country creates additional obstacles for full-fledged company operation. As stated in Breslins book, reports from Chinese and international agencies point to a depressing array of environmental problems (161). The massive amount of exhausts results in an increasing rate of diseases and thus, in a poorer employees performance.
Summarizing the research findings, Chinas economy has reached the point at which the country is forced to overcome economic and environmental obstacles created by its rapid advancement. The Chinese market offers a number of attractive opportunities for both internal and external enterprises, making emphasis on the cheap workforce and the latest technology innovations. However, the benefits that businesses receive from staying within the market are always accompanied by challenges that may seriously affect the volumes of produce. Therefore, it is highly recommended for companies to consider these disruptive factors and provide changes aimed at the elimination of possible decline in production.
Work Cited
Breslin, Shaun. China and the Global Political Economy. Springer, 2016.
Urban planning is a multifaceted procedure involving the evaluation of numerous aspects. The demands of a specific area should determine the objectives of strategists. Urban planners establish plans and guidelines for appropriate land utilization. They develop methods to delineate neighborhoods and regenerate physical infrastructure in urban regions, municipalities, and cities. Urban planners essentially assist communities in identifying their unique requirements and devising innovative solutions. They organize, direct, and supervise urban growth. In urban planning and implementation, many tools, such as geographic data systems, are applied to increase the effectiveness of their activities. Nonetheless, it is evident that urban planners encounter numerous obstacles that impede the effectiveness of their functions. Their efforts may be considerably slowed down or hindered by obstacles. Thus, this case study examines urban planners issues to discover the answers to each obstacle and the partnerships that can successfully alleviate the hurdles.
Critical Challenges Facing Urban Planners
One of the most obvious obstacles urban planners face is finding solutions to problems caused by disruptive innovation. Hopp et al. (2018) enumerated that it alludes to a breakthrough that develops a growing market and displaces old items. The authors argue that revolutionary technology is one of the most significant obstacles due to the complex marketplace, which has prompted the emergence of new commodities, affecting planning procedure. They affect planning process because they enhance market rivalry and ultimately alters market effectiveness. It results in a fall in commodity prices, which is beneficial to customers.
The economy of a community is a crucial component of long-term sustainability. The investors provide new items to the market to stimulate economic growth via competitiveness (Jepson & Haines, 2014). However, rising competition poses numerous obstacles for the business and may result in substantial upheavals. The observable consequences impact an urban planners activities on marketplace performance. For example, disruptive innovation begins gradually and expands substantially to affect the whole economy and the task of an urban planner.
The introduction of radical technologies entails urban expansion and advancement, which will have repercussions on numerous structures. To incorporate the advances and market shifts, an urban planner must reorganize and redesign the neighborhood or town. Disruptive innovation affect the planning process due to frequent economic changes. It compels urban planners to incorporate new concepts to adapt to alterations in the urban planning procedure. The alteration of society standards and institutions, as well as the sectors, is the second-order outcome of this situation.
Financing Difficulties in Metropolitan Areas
Planners of metropolitan areas often have substantial difficulties regarding financial issues. For example, a congestion economy results in financial matters for urban planners due to cities overpopulation. Urban development contributes to economic expansion by creating employment possibilities. Nonetheless, a high population in metropolitan areas will necessitate the construction of more infrastructure to support the people, impacting the functions of urban planners (Trimble MEP, 2019). Density also influences the overall cost of land and dwellings in metropolitan regions. Others may not be able to afford the pricey lifestyle, which will drive them to consider alternatives such as residing in a remote location and commuting daily to the city, hence impacting the planning procedure. Jepson & Haines (2014) insinuated that the high expense of urban living impacts urban planners since they must reconstruct and rebuild homes to meet persons with varying economic means. Therefore, financial difficulties affect urban design because changes in dwelling structures necessitate the need to suit various social strata.
Overall, an increasing population is one of the urban planners most serious difficulties today. For example, exponential demographic expansion results in large rural-to-urban migration, which increases urban inhabitants. A spike in the metropolitan concentration of people increases the requirements of urban surroundings. As a result of its impact on housing quality, it generates social strife (Trimble MEP, 2019). Urban planners processes are affected by the need for additional housing, adequate transit, and other demands resulting from rapid population expansion. Thus, urban areas must be effectively restructured and redesigned to handle the growing population. In addition to social instability and urban violence, effective planning is required to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas Therefore, the predominance of social upheaval and metropolitan violence is a second-order effect of this problem.
Fragmented and Overlapping Governments
A fragmented government comprises multiple smaller governments within the same metropolitan region. The dispersion of authority in the area results in a variety of advantages as well as difficulties, one of the most significant of which is the difficulty in planning process (Ardashev, 2005). Furthermore, fragmented administrations face challenges in formulating and enforcing policies due to the situations complexity. For instance, decisions on tax collections and rules governing land utilization may present numerous issues to the citizens due to insufficient input and participation on their behalf. The struggles people go through due to their perceptions of discriminatory practices and injustice are second-order repercussions of this challenge.
Horizontal fragmentation of the administration is possible when the constituent units are located within the same metropolitan region. It is possible for there to be a vertical structure in which one or two components exert a large degree of influence over the decisions and revenues of the other parts. Given the importance of decision-making and policy formation to urban planning, the separation of government presents a substantial challenge to the profession (Carruthers, 2003). It offers considerable problems to the residential and transportation sectors and other aspects of urban development that play a role in determining how population growth is distributed.
Impacts and Second-Order Consequences of the Challenges
The three difficulties above each have the potential to have various repercussions and second-order implications. Firstly, disruptive innovations impact the whole economic system because they launch new items that are more competitive than the commodities already in the marketplace (Hopp et al., 2018). The alteration of society standards and institutions, as well as the sectors, is the second-order outcome of this situation. It will ultimately collide with the planning phase that metropolitan planners use. For instance, creativity may result in establishing new standards and ideals in the community, which urban planners must consider while formulating their strategies. As a result, it presents a greater difficulty to their activities.
Secondly, the high population growth in metropolitan areas creates challenges for urban planners regarding securing adequate funding for their operations. The predominance of social upheaval and metropolitan violence is a second-order effect of this problem, and it has caused societal issues as a direct result. In light of this, there is an urgent need to develop infrastructure to address these effects and boost welfare. For this reason, urban designers must handle the second-order impact for an efficient planning stage alongside dealing with the fast-increasing population, which brings about financial sanctions.
A fragmented administration also has a second-order impact as a last point to consider. Norton (2010) stated that a segmented government structure presents significant issues when it comes to making decisions and formulating regulations. The struggles people go through due to their perceptions of discriminatory practices and injustice are second-order repercussions. For instance, people will have the impression that they are not fairly represented in the programs due to urban expansion and state dispersion. Therefore, it will be the responsibility of urban planners to solve the difficulties of unfairness and urban sprawl, as well as the decentralization of governance. As a whole, the second-order implications bring about greater risks to the functions of urban planners; hence, resolving both ramifications is perfect for optimizing their activities.
Analysis of Solutions to Challenges
Fluctuating market mechanisms present urban planners with the most frequent obstacle: disruptive innovation. Adopting business paradigms is an innovative response to the problems posed by revolutionary technologies for urban planners. As reported earlier, disruptive innovation influences the design process by providing new items to the marketplace and altering economic models. In this instance, Eggers et al. (2012) enumerated that planners should not focus exclusively on merchandise and offerings; rather, they should develop marketing strategies that do not change when new commodities are launched into the marketplace. The authors, further, insinuated that, irrespective of the arrival of new items, the sustainability of business strategies strengthens the specific functionality of the industry.
Furthermore, a corporate model is a profit-generating plan that includes the merchandise and customer segments. It is an ideal method for enhancing the operation and stability of both new and old enterprises. It is a handbook that regulates organizational activities in a certain sector to improve comparative advantage. The solution will work by strengthening the markets adaptability, the business model permits the incorporation of new items and developments with minimal impact on their performance (Karakiewicz, 2016). Therefore, disruptive innovations will not affect the planning procedure, as there will be no requirement for reorganization and rebuilding to suit new techniques and items.
Financing Difficulties
Rapid population growth, which encourages migration to metropolitan regions, leads to an increase in the number of financial issues. As noted earlier, congestion is one of the planning phases biggest obstacles. This is because urban planners ought to reorganize and remodel the urban infrastructure to fulfill the varied requirements of a society of varying demographics. Land banking has been suggested as the most effective approach to overcoming this obstacle (OBrien et al., 2005). Investing in land for housing or commercial expansion is a component of this strategy. This remedy works by making it possible for land to be reutilized in various ways during the operations of development planning. The practice of property speculation would be a definitive answer to the problem of the rapidly rising population in metropolitan areas.
Moreover, income for the design procedure can also be generated through the adoption of taxation laws that stimulate the involvement of the general public. The Tax Increment Financing (TIF) program will also make it possible to invest in public infrastructure to increase future revenue. Therefore, municipal administrations have the option of utilizing TIF to improve the efficiency of the planning stage. The substantial earnings the administration will continue accumulating into the foreseeable future are sufficient to compensate for the initiatives. The dependence on Special Taxing Districts will also be an optimal response to urban planners budgetary restraints. TIF will function by contributing to financing infrastructure projects to make the work of urban planners easier.
Lastly, impact fees are a crucial component of the solution to the difficulties in finance that urban planners face. Impact fees are a type of fee collected by municipal councils as part of the land development authorization (Draper, 1987). The fact that these fees are put toward improving fringe and suburban areas makes them eligible for some of the benefits that come with paying them. There is no denying that these regions are subject to significant growth pressure; nonetheless, the land is still easily accessible. Thus, impact fees are a viable means by which urban planners can solve the financial issues they face.
Fragmented and Overlapping Governments, Authorities, and Special Districts
The decision-making process, as well as the creation and execution of policies, are greatly impacted when administrations, institutions, and special districts are fragmented and intersect. In the end, it affects the day-to-day activities of urban planners due to the difficulties presented by architecture (Ardashev, 2005). Consolidating various government levels and lowering the number of elected representatives is the best possible response to these difficulties. Merging of governments is the solution to the problem of interstate compacts, which frequently occurs in governmental systems that are vertically divided.
Due to inefficient strategies and actions, the intersection of states poses a considerable risk to the efficiency of the resources allocated to urban planning. This risk is compounded by governments often competing with one another for resources (Carruthers, 2003). Hence, integrated jurisdictions will have lower overall costs since they can supply services at lower expenses than fragmented governmental systems. Consolidation will work by lightening the taxpayers load, making it easier for everyone to work together during the planning procedure.
Moreover, chances to participate in decision-making and the design of policies are made available through the unified constitutional framework. For example, the judgments and rules will be open to everyones input, making the planning process more effective overall (Abels, 2014). The regulations around taxes are the major legislations that directly affect urban planners. Tax laws affect the countrys people and contribute to problems of inequality and systematic oppression brought about by decentralized government systems. Yet, if centralized government mechanisms are in place, every individual will be a conscientious taxpayer, addressing several different budgetary restrictions that urban planners may face. Participants will have the experience of being evenly included in the guidelines, which will motivate them to take part. The less beneficial variables will also be mitigated, increasing the design processs overall efficiency.
Analysis of Partnerships Using a Biblical Worldview
Disruptive Innovation
The parties involved in the comprehensive planning process are entrepreneurs. They are seeking ways to improve their competitiveness to better fit in the marketplace, which has exacerbated the number of disruptions caused by the frequent modifications in the market frameworks. Their contribution has led to a rise in the number of firms that seek critical tactics to divert rivals in the industry and strengthen their strategic edge. Therefore, this has increased the frequency of destabilizing corporations. This belief is contrary to the teachings of the Bible, which state that every person has a unique talent that is best suited for a certain calling. Each one should test their actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each should carry their own load (New International Version, 1973, Galatians 6:4-5). Therefore, God did not create humans with the intention of pitting them against one another in an arena of battle. In light of what is stated in this passage of scripture, it is clear that each individual is on their path.
A persons level of dedication to their task ultimately determines the level of success and profit. Rivalry is forbidden in the Bible; therefore, entrepreneurs impacts would lead to carrying out of precise actions rather than formulating strategies to increase the level of the markets competition. As a result, second-order disruptive developments will be kept to a minimum, which will be an essential step toward solving the problems that urban planners are currently confronting. Thus, to completely solve these difficulties, urban planners should do so by approaching them from a theological worldview.
Financial Difficulties
Under fiscal challenges the parties involved in the comprehensive planning process are businesses and urban designers. When it comes to running their businesses, urban planners need to have a solid financial foundation. According to the teachings of the Bible, people ought to regard their wealth as a creation of God and a gift from him to improve their prosperity (New International Version, 1973, Philippians 4:19). For instance, urban planners contribute to solving monetary concerns by being responsible stewards of the resources that God has placed in their care since such resources are intended to forward the purpose of Gods kingdom. Since the land is also a possession of God, people should exercise extreme caution while investing in it. As was noted earlier, one of the best answers to the economic issues that urban planners face is the practice of land banking. The Bible says, But the pastureland belonging to their towns must not be sold; it is their permanent possession (New International Version, 1973, Leviticus 25:34). This verse enumerates the importance of utilizing land in the best interest of everyone.
According to the teachings from Leviticus 25:34, people should not regard selling property as their first option. In its place, land may be repurposed and used for various aspects of development. Their impacts would lead to exercising responsible stewardship over the resources that God has given them, strengthens their financial security by doing so. They will obtain more benefits from God to improve their financial lives if they make intelligent use of their possessions. The effect on second-order consequences is that urban planners will be able to overcome the economic issues they face by acting as responsible stewards of those blessings.
Governments, Authorities, and Special Districts
The parties involved under this section are the individual citizens and leaders of a country. According to the teachings of the Bible, God chooses those who will rule over humanity and uses them as his instruments to do so. Their contribution is to respect and appreciate those in authority positions at all levels. Leaders serve the purpose of acting as responsible custodians of the individuals they are responsible for. The Bible enumerates, Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves (New International Version, 1973, Philippians 2:3). Therefore, respect and appropriate care should be shown to citizens by those in positions of power, just as servants should be subservient to those in positions of authority.
Nonetheless, the non-compliance of the individuals in administration positions with the teachings of Gods word makes it difficult for urban planners to create workable solutions to the problems posed by splintered and overlapping jurisdictions and special districts. According to biblical teachings, these problems will be solved when every individual comes to terms with the primary obligations that are rightfully theirs. Therefore, servants will practice responsibility and become subservient to their superiors, and they will also honor the executives. Their impact is that they wil exercise good stewardship over the populace, including them in policymaking and decision-making processes and prioritizing the inhabitants well-being over their oppression.
Conclusion
Urban planners operate with strategies to delineate neighborhoods and renew physical infrastructure in metropolitan centers, municipalities, or towns. Urban planners may also work with the intention of introducing new communities. They are in charge of monitoring, planning, and controlling the citys growth. During the stages of their procedures, the most typical issues they face include digital disruption, economic hardship, decentralized and conflicting administrations, institutions, and special districts. An innovation that is considered destabilizing raises the level of rivalry in the marketplace, eventually affecting how the market functions. It is possible to fix the problem by using various corporate paradigms.
A considerable number of people move from rural to urban areas as a direct result of rapid population growth, which results in a rise in the population density of urban areas. A rising population size of urban surroundings culminates in a spike in the expectations imposed on metropolitan settings. Thus, this, in turn, causes a rise in the difficulty of meeting financial obligations, and land banking is one potential solution to this problem. Housing, transit, and other aspects of urban advancement that determine the dispersion of population increase can be significantly hampered by a political structure in disarray. It is possible to resolve the issue by utilizing a centralized government framework. To summarize, persons should minimize competitiveness, be responsible stewards, and embrace their obligations to improve their organizations efficacy in accordance with the teachings of the Bible.
Norton, R. K. (2010). Who decides, how, and why-planning for the judicial review of local legislative zoning decisions. Urban Law, 43, 1085-1105. Web.
OBrien, K., Toth, K. S., Robey, C., Gollan, C., Sattler, M., Duritsky, J., & Hudecek, S. (2005). Best practices in land bank operation. All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications, 1-41. Web.